


Wild at Heart

by Untherius



Series: Blood of Ages [2]
Category: Jurassic Park (Movies)
Genre: Animal Death, Coming of Age, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-21
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-02-26 12:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2652572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Untherius/pseuds/Untherius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alexis Murphy had been experiencing what has been, beyond a shadow of a doubt, her most abysmal weekend ever.  After being ground into the mud by a Tyrannosaurs rex, sneezed on by a Brachiosaurus, nearly trampled by a herd of Gallimimus, watching her brother electrocuted, and then being caught by velociraptors, there was no way things could possibly get any worse.  Could they?  Someday, maybe she'd learn not to say that.  One thing was certain:  her life would never be the same after that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story runs parallel to "Behind Amber Eyes," continuing after that story ends.

Alexis Murphy faced a conundrum. On the one hand, her left wrist had a rather large hole in it, thanks to a certain velociraptor. On the other hand, her right hand was beginning to cramp from applying direct pressure. For all she knew, direct pressure was relative. Already, she had more blood on her arm than she'd care to have.

Actually, she preferred to have _no_ blood on her arm. It didn't help that it wasn't all hers. A little of it had oozed out of the corresponding wrist of the Alpha-Female velociraptor and been forcibly mingled with her own. To make matters worse, that blood had been mixed largely inside her own body when the raptor had pressed its wounded wrist against Lex's own.

Although that had happened mere minutes before, those had been, without a doubt, the longest minutes of her life. Longer than being ground into the mud and nearly eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex. Longer than the disgusting moments after a Brachiosaurus had sneezed all over her. Longer than the nearly two horrible minutes her brother had lain dead on the ground while undergoing CPR. Longer than being caught by a velociraptor and carried kicking and screaming from the kitchen down to the Jurassic Park Visitor Center lobby.

She'd thought the claw to her wrist was to have been the worst part. It had hurt more than all other pain in her life put together. Which, admittedly, wasn't saying much for a sheltered girl like her. But she'd been quite sure pain would never again bother her after that.

She'd cried, of course. Not wracking, screaming sobs, like the ones she'd shed in the receding panic following her and Alan's descent down that wall. She fancied herself too strong for that. Or maybe she'd exhausted all that, left only with the fountains that fueled her tears. But then it got worse.

Not the pain, not really. When the velociraptor, Sholtha her name was, had mixed their blood, it had burned. Alexis hadn't been sure why. But when images and memories had rolled through her mind like thunder, the physical pain had been suddenly rendered irrelevant.

In the minutes that had followed, she'd felt her mind bouncing back and forth inside her head the way water in a tub might slosh back and forth before eventually calming. Yet it had felt like forever. Memories of another life, a life that had once been hers, one she knew she'd had before she'd been reborn as a human. She didn't know how she knew, but she did.

The floor shook, dragging her back to the present. That shaking meant she had another problem, a more immediate problem. Her newly-discovered identity issues would have to wait.

“Uh,” said Tim, his voice suddenly full of fear, “is that what I think it is?”

Lex felt her breathing increase along with a resurgence of fear.

“I have a very bad feeling about this,” said Alan.

“Can we go now?” said Lex.

“No tine,” said Sholtha. She turned to Robert Muldoon...or was his name really Thelen...Lex wasn't quite sure. “Try to stay out ozth the ghay, alskling.”

Lex watched as Sholtha gave orders to the other two raptors in her own language. She found, to her astonishment, that she understood what Sholtha was saying! She didn't think she could translate. She just somehow knew what it all meant.

The other two raptors took up positions along the sides of the room while Sholtha took a few steps away from the group of humans. The ground continued to shake. Soon, the T-rex shouldered its way into the hall. Was there another entrance? Lex hadn't been paying much attention to that sort of thing.

Then again, she hadn't been paying much attention to a lot of things. She and Tim were supposed to have been visiting their grandpa for a relaxing weekend while Mom did some annoying legal stuff divorcing Dad. Little had she known that it would turn out to be her worst weekend ever.

The tyrannosaur took several steps into the room, then fixed its gaze on Sholtha, who flitted back and forth, her head bobbing up and down. Lex was about to remind her not to move when the T-rex let out an earth-shattering roar that made her ears ring. It took two more steps toward Sholtha, who froze. Unfortunately, those two steps brought the beast far too close. As if it wasn't quite close enough already.

Without warning, the other two raptors sprang onto opposite sides of the tyrannosaur, screeching, clawing, and gnawing. She watched Sholtha dart beneath it, leap up, then carve jagged furrows in its chest on her way back to the floor.

At first, Lex just stood there gawking, not quite frozen with fear. After a few moments, she forgot about her wounded arm enough that her grip on it relaxed. Her fingers slid away from her wrist, both slipping on her still-moist blood and sticking to the drying, caking stuff around the edges.

The rex swung around and grabbed one of the raptors by the tail, pulling it away. Blood ran out around the huge teeth. The raptor curled up, screeching in what Lex knew to be both pain and anger. It lashed out with its hands, claws ripping into the rex's nose. Lex felt one side of her mouth quirk upward in satisfaction.

Then the rex let go and the raptor flew across the room, trailing drops of blood and saliva, slammed into the wall, and fell limply to the floor. The rex roared again, then swung its head back toward its other flank which the other raptor was still ripping apart. Sholtha chose that moment to attack the Tyrannosaur's left leg, apparently distracting it.

Alexis felt something twitch inside her own mind. It wasn't anything physical, but it was tangible nonetheless. Her fear dropped away, leaving her with a sort of detached awareness. She glanced about her, then spun, ducked down and went for something lying on the floor.

“Lex, freeze!” Alan barked at her.

She ignored him. Instead, she snatched up the shotgun Alan had dropped earlier, and quickly checked the weapon.

She chuckled slightly to herself. Dad had taken her and Tim shooting on many occasions, despite Mom's objections. It was one of many things on that long list of grievances that had led to her parents' divorce. Yet Dad had insisted that proficiency with firearms would come in handy some day. He'd been convinced that she and Tim would one day have to defend themselves and their families against tyranny. Little had he known that his little girl would be defending her brother and grandfather against the King of the Tyrant Lizards! She laughed out loud.

“Lex?” said Alan nervously.

She ignored him again. She glanced up as the rex grabbed the other raptor and bit down on its body. The wet crunching sound made her stomach twitch. It swung its hapless attacker back and forth a couple of times before flinging it against the wall. The thud vibrated through Lex's feet.

She narrowed her eyes and she raised her weapon. She glanced at the Tyrannosaur skeleton hanging from the ceiling, noting where the bones were. She remembered what her father had said about critical shots and she knew that even those ribs were easily large enough to stop a shell. While her aim still needed improvement and while she still had problems with recoil, she couldn't possibly miss a target that large at such close range.

She adjusted her aim, exhaled slowly, then gently squeezed the trigger. BLAM! The shot echoed around the room and a spot of blood blossomed across the rex's upper chest. The great head swung her direction as she pumped the weapon. It was stiff, but she managed, glad that there was so little blood on her left palm. The sweat rapidly beading up all over her body would surely have made things far too slippery. The pain in her wrist, however, spiked.

She readjusted her aim and again squeezed the trigger. BLAM! Another gout of blood rose up several inches from where her first shot had landed. A series of pop-pop-pops hammered her ears from the right. She glanced that way.

Thelen—she found herself thinking of him more as the velociraptor he'd once been--knelt there, holding a pistol in his right hand, a determined grimace on his face. He handed the weapon behind his head. “Reload!” he called.

Lex glanced about for another shell. “Uh...” She held out her hand without looking away from the enemy. “Shell!” she yelled.

Two of the cold rounds smacked into her palm. She gripped one between her teeth and shoved the other into the weapon's breech. Her left wrist screamed at her, but she ignored it. She cocked, then aimed as the head swung toward her. She fired again, into the point near the base of the jaw near where the head attached to the neck.

More blood spouted outward. She ejected the spent shell, spit her spare into her hand, then shoved it into the breech, and cocked again, her wrist protesting. She barely had time to raise the weapon and fire into the Tyrannosaur's lower jaw. The dinosaur roared again, but with a slightly gurgling quality that reminded her a lot of air being expelled from the irrigation lines out in her yard back home.

A fine spray of blood, which would have reminded Lex of the microsprayers that irrigated hanging baskets on her porch if it hadn't been so disgusting, flew out of the gaping mouth that roared at them, spattering everybody and everything with Tyrannosaur blood.

Alexis realized too late that her mouth had been open at the time. She felt several drops of blood land on her tongue. Before she could think about how gross that was, more memories from her former life flooded her mind, then dispersed. She moved to ask for another shell, then paused.

The Tyrannosaur tried to roar again, but it came out as a sort of wet wheeze. Like that asthmatic kid at school.

The Tyrannosaur swayed. It lurched toward the right, tried to lurch to the left, then its leg buckled and it fell to the floor with a wet splut that hurled even more blood through the air. Its ribs heaved a few times, then it let out a mournful howl and was still.

The silence was deafening. Alexis watched Sholtha bounce onto the fallen T-rex, then trot along it and jump off its head. Sholtha spun around, her feet slipping across the expanding pool of blood, then came to a stop. She took a few steps toward Lex and stopped.

Sholtha wiped a bloody knuckle across Thelen's forehead. Then she did the same to Alexis. Lex felt the wet, sticky fluid begin to run across her skin. She was vaguely aware that she should have been totally freaked out about having dinosaur blood all over her. Maybe it would bother her later after she'd come down off of whatever adrenaline high she was riding.

Sholtha stepped back and said, in her language, “Victory is life!”

Alexis didn't know how she understood that. Nor did she understand why she and Thelen echoed it in English.

After a moment, Alexis looked down at the weapon in her hands. A slight bit of steam curled from the muzzle where a few drops of blood clung to the metal. The whole thing was speckled with blood. So were both her arms. The ruddy smear all over her left wrist seemed half dry, glistening in spots, matte in others, as though it were part of an oil painting.

The shotgun fell out of her hands and clattered loudly on the floor. She stared at her palms, the right dark red with mostly her own blood. After a few moments, she looked into Sholtha's eyes. “That was...really violent!” There was a slight squeak to her voice, more felt than heard, or so it seemed from inside her own head.

Sholtha looked over her shoulder and sighed, then turned around, took a few steps away, then tilted her head upward and began to warble. No, actually, it seemed to Lex like something else. She didn't know what to call it, but the intent was clear. Her sister was singing a song to mourn the dead. Lex wasn't sure it was supposed to go like that, but she didn't remember more than a vague misgiving about it.

Instead, Alexis took a deep breath, held it, then turned to Thelen...Muldoon...dang it, things were confusing! She hoped that would improve. “Um...Mister Muldoon?”

“You can call me Thelen, if you'd like. It's shorter. Or Rob if you'd prefer.”

“Um...thanks...Rob. Can...may I borrow your knife? There's something we have to do.”

Robert pulled the large Bowie knife from his belt and handed it to Lex handle first.

She took it tentatively, then turned and started across the room.

“Lex?” said her grandpa. “What are you doing now?”

“You'll see,” she groaned. Her shoes made muffled splurching sounds in the slowly coagulating Tyrannosaur blood. “Euw,” she moaned softly, “this is _so_ gross!”

“Then why are you doing it?” asked Tim from behind her.

“Because I must,” she replied. She stopped, the twisted around to look back. “And I don't see _you_ following me.”

Tim laughed. “That's because it's priceless seeing you with all this bloody stuff.”

“Hrmph!” Lex turned back around and resumed walking. She glanced left. Why hadn't she just walked around all the blood? Ugh!

At length, she reached the far wall and the crumpled form of one of the velociraptors. Its torso was crushed, the hide riddled with two sets of large holes from which leaked a pool of congealing blood. Lex exhaled, then knelt down beside the dead raptor.

She groaned, then grasped one of the hind feet. Her wrist screamed at her, the wound cracking open a little. She winced, but otherwise sliced into the flesh. She cringed even more at the way the blade vibrated against skin, muscle, and tendon. She really could barely believe she was doing what she was doing. It was nothing short of disgusting and she was certain her mom would instantly lose her lunch if she had even the slightest idea what her little girl was doing. Lex nearly lost her own just thinking about it, barely managing to avoid it by gathering her thoughts. Thoughts that at the moment seemed like the world's biggest herd of cats.

She grumbled and moaned the whole time about how disgusting it was. When she'd finished cutting claws and teeth from the dead raptor, she made her way to the other raptor on the other side of the room and repeated the procedure. She was barely aware of what sounded like an argument between the other humans, though she'd have bet it had something to do with Thelen trying to help her and the others objecting on the basis of his injuries.

She tottered over to the Tyrannosaur, then knelt in the blood and cut claws and teeth from it as well. That took a lot longer. Everything on that animal was much larger and took correspondingly longer to cut. And as a lifelong vegetarian city girl, she didn't exactly have any practical experience deboning chickens, filleting fish, slicing beef for jerky, or any number of other such things involving raw meat. All of which translated into a long, brutal, smelly, bloody job that was disgusting far beyond her capacity to express in English, Spanish, or Khantushakal.

Alexis was maybe halfway done when Thelen tottered over with a fire axe and began chopping teeth out of the Tyrannosaur's jaws. She wasn't sure it really helped much. Sure, it got the job done a lot faster, but mostly succeeded in splattering more blood and whatnot all over the both of them. If someone didn't offer her a shower—hot or cold, she didn't care which--sometime in the next hour, she wasn't sure she'd be responsible for the consequences.

When she'd gathered up all the teeth and claws, she piled them into a sling formed by lifting the hem of her shirt, and all but stomped back over to where the other humans waited. She slipped a few times, but by then, she'd stopped caring about falling on her behind into the expansive slick of blood that coated much of the floor tile. She felt almost completely covered in the stuff already as it was. She glared at her brother. “Don't start with me,” she all but snarled.

Sholtha snorted from over her shoulder. She looked around at the dinosaur. She briefly marveled that, barely an hour before, looking straight into the snout of a velociraptor had filled her with unbridled terror. That had been replaced with...she didn't quite know what. But it wasn't fear, that was for sure. She'd have to sort out the emotions later. Hopefully that wouldn't involve a psychotic episode. Or hundreds of billable psychiatric hours.

Lex sighed, then turned back to Tim. “Sorry,” she said, meaning it. She knelt down and set her load carefully onto the floor. She considered it all for a few moments. How was she going to carry it? She absentmindedly reached up and scratched her head pensively. After several moments, she froze, then groaned. She was getting blood in her hair, too. Not that she didn't already have some up there from what had misted out of the Tyrannosaur's mouth. But, still. It was all so...gross!

She looked at her hands and whimpered. They'd turned completely brown-red. She couldn't wait to be able to scrub and even then, she didn't know if she'd ever get all the blood out of her cuticles or from under her nails. She looked back to Sholtha, then to Thelen, Tim, Alan, Ellie, and finally Grandpa.

“Can we go now?” she whined. She knew she sounded pathetic, but she didn't particularly care. She was exhausted, confused, in pain, and covered in blood. And, more than anything, she just wanted to go home.


	2. Chapter 2

Alexis Murphy barely ducked beneath the set of helicopter blades whirling above her head. She simply lacked the energy. She didn't remember ever being so tired. No, exhausted would have been the right word, and even that seemed inadequate to describe her level of fatigue. She felt wrung out in more directions than she'd ever guessed were possible.

She was barely aware of Ian Malcolm hobbling after her, his broken leg splinted straight. She felt the craft begin to rise almost before the door had shut. Or maybe it was her imagination. She collapsed into her seat, Alan Grant between herself and her brother. The smells of dirt, still slightly damp mud, three days' worth of sweat, and three species' blood didn't take long to fill the confined space. And that was even after having taken what had sort of passed for a sponge-bath. Oddly, it didn't bother her. It smelled like home, but not the one in California. The last thing she saw before her eyelids closed was Grandpa gazing at the amber mounted to the top of his cane.

She awoke in a cold sweat, screaming at the top of her lungs. A not-so-light jolt jerked her partway out of her terror.

“Lex?” It was a male voice. She managed to stop panicking just long enough to register the small space about her. Her eyes locked onto a familiar face.

“A...Alan? Wh...wh...wh...” she stammered.

“Lex, it's okay,” said Alan. “You're safe.”

“Where are we?” she managed to ask.

“Palo Alto,” he replied.

“Lex?” It was her grandpa.

“Oh, Grandpa!” she moaned and threw her arms around his head. Her whole body ached, but she ignored it. She felt tears well up and she buried her face against his shirt. It smelled like sweat and blood, but she didn't care. His arms wrapped around her as sobs heaved her body. More hands rested against her shoulders.

She heard a thump behind her, then a lot of noise, and the gentle pressure of a cool breeze.

“Come on, Lex,” said Grandpa, coaxing her to her feet. “Let's go.”

She stood up shakily, only then looking at the other faces. Ellie...Ian Malcolm...Tim. She turned and hugged her brother. He hugged her back.

The air outside of what she recognized as the helicopter that had taken them away from Isla Nublar was cool with a slight salt tang to it. A light breeze carried a hint of what smelled like gasoline, which from the Leers in the near distance was probably jet fuel.

Two men in dark suits ushered Alexis and her companions into a nearby hangar. The air was still compared to outside, but not stuffy like the helicopter had been. A small plane stood to one side and a black SUV directly ahead.

“Shouldn't we be getting Ian to a hospital?” said Ellie.

“Good point,” grunted Ian. “Because the last of that morphine's kind of wearing off.”

“Sorry, Ian,” said Grandpa, “there's some protocol.”

“Proto- _ceratops_ ,” Tim corrected, a slight giggle in his voice.

Alexis groaned. She remembered those having been tasty. She groaned again, more loudly, and pressed a pair of fingers against her temple.

“Lex?” said Grandpa.

“You don't want to know,” she moaned.

“What sort of protocol?” asked Ian.

“Non-disclosure agreement,” said Grandpa.

“What's that?” asked Tim.

“It means,” said one of the men escorting them, “that you're not allowed to talk to anyone about what happened.”

“Oh.”

“We'll go over it later,” said Grandpa.

Ian cussed. Alexis winced.

“Ian,” said Ellie, “must you?”

“Sorry,” said Ian. Alexis didn't think he sounded very sorry. “Can you at least give me, I don't know, a Vicodin or something first?”

“He has a broken leg,” said Ellie, probably to the two men in the suits.

They looked at her like she was nuts.

“Please?” said Alexis as sweetly as she could. She was sure she didn't exactly look like Laura Ingalls Wilder, but who could really say no to a twelve-year-old girl asking a favor for a...well, Mr. Malcolm wasn't exactly a friend, she supposed, but still.

The men looked at each other, then back at the group.

“Oh, for the love of God!” said Grandpa. “You're not the bloody Men in Black. Give the man something for his leg, would you?” He glanced at Alexis and Tim. “And the children, too.”

“I'm okay,” said Alexis.

“Me, too,” said Tim. Alexis glanced at her brother. She knew his wrist hurt just as much as hers did. Which wasn't very much anymore. Not really. Not like it had, anyway. Grandpa gave them both a concerned look.

“We'll live,” said Alexis.

“Besides,” said Tim, “girls like scars.”

Alexis snickered, then gave her brother a noogie. He protested, though not like he meant it. She felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe Sholtha's words to Tim had left an impression. On the other hand, encountering a talking dinosaur would have left an impression on anyone. Still, she truly hated always being at odds with her brother.

“We'll see what we can do,” said one of the men.

If Alexis had been comatose aboard the helicopter, she was strung-out during the short drive to InGen headquarters. Everything was familiar, of course: cars; traffic lights; aircraft; Stanford's Hoover Tower rising above the palms; and all the other stuff one finds in cities. But it felt like she was looking at it all with new eyes. It was...weird and she knew of no other way to describe it.

On the way, Grandpa went over the Nondisclosure Agreement they'd have to sign. It sounded like a pain. And it was confusing. She wasn't sure about the whole Alexis versus Asthriki thing, either. Worse, she didn't know anyone who could help her sort it all out. And if she wasn't allowed to talk to anyone, then what? She didn't think she could handle it herself. She said as much.

“We'll figure it out, sweetheart,” said Grandpa. She hoped he was right.

The vehicle wove one way and then the other. Normally, she might have felt lost. But she felt anything but normal and she certainly wasn't lost, even though she didn't remember ever having visited Palo Alto before.

At long last, they pulled up next to a large building. In many ways, it looked just like any other office complex. But she recognized the asymmetrical architecture from photos she'd seen of the place. She and the others were ushered through what she was sure was a side entrance. No large front desk greeted them, no wall-sized corporate logo, none of that. Not that she'd ever been inside many offices anyway, but she'd at least heard of the sorts of things one generally saw in their lobbies.

Up a stuffy elevator they went, then down a broad, harshly-lit corridor. The muffled grumble and hiss of the building's HVAC sounded unusually loud to her. Was it supposed to be like that? If anyone else noticed, they didn't comment on it.

A large conference room held a suitably large wooden table, probably of maple or oak. Her grandpa rarely spared much expense on such things. Papers and pens had been neatly arranged in front of each of several of the cushy-looking, high-backed chairs.

Once everyone had been seated, another man in a suit introduced himself as an attorney. The rest of his job title went over Alexis' head. He proceeded to go over the Nondisclosure Agreement, page by page, line by line, in such excruciating detail that Alexis wasn't sure she'd ever been so bored in her life. Why couldn't they have just used a single paragraph to say she wouldn't talk about any of it to anyone? She could have signed _that_ in the darned car!

The lawyer assured everyone that it was all standard and all perfectly straightforward. But for Alexis, it was anything but straightforward. She understood full well that Alexis Murphy was not allowed to talk to anyone about anything that had happened on Isla Nublar or about anything she'd seen or heard there.

But what about Asthriki? Was she allowed to say anything as her velociraptor self? Was she allowed to talk about what she remembered from Asthriki's life all those eons ago? Was that really how it worked anyway? Did she have two people living in her brain, or were they two sides of the same coin, so to speak? She didn't have answers to any of those questions. Neither did she ask them for fear of at least being committed to some place with pink padded walls. Maybe Grandpa would figure out how to find whatever help she needed and hopefully that help wouldn't involve a shrink's couch.

* * *

Alexis Murphy had never known a simple shower could feel so good. The warm water flowing over her body reminded her of what all the TV commercials always promised. Who knew those things might actually have been true-ish? But the way the water and lather washed all the dirt, sweat, and blood off her skin and out of her hair was nothing short of wonderful. She didn't know if she'd ever experience another shower in quite the same way, but she didn't particularly care. Maybe she'd have a good bath-salt soak later...but that would be later.

She stood gazing into the large bathroom mirror, the reflection of her face rimmed in the condensation that had settled on the glass. She still looked the same. Same face, same green eyes, same sandy hair. She picked up a brush and began to run it carefully through the strands.

It had been a monumental effort just to undo her braid. It, like the rest of her, had been so thoroughly caked with dried mud, blood, brachiosaur snot, and who knew what else, she'd initially thought she might have had to cut it all off. She'd briefly wondered what she'd look like with boy hair. A brief scrunching it up behind her head had illustrated the point to her satisfaction.

No, she liked it long. It made her feel more like a girl, something she needed more than ever. She wasn't sure how much of that was from...the incident...and how much was because of her age. She spent however long it was brushing out her hair, flinching a little every time a bristle caught. Fortunately, the thorough shampooing job had loosened it up enough. Even so, she still wasn't sure she wasn't going to end up with half her scalp in the sink.

The rest of her hair-brushing proceeded pretty much like it always had. At least that was normal. Maybe it was a sign she could put all that dinosaur stuff behind her. She pulled a lip up and looked at her teeth. “Meat-asaurus, my foot,” she grumbled.

She shook her hair out one last time before walking out of the bathroom and out onto the balcony attached to her room. She rested her hands on the railing and gazed out at the Pacific Ocean. She knew what was out there, far to the south.

Instead, she thought about the beaches around Monterrey Bay that curved around to her left. How she and Tim had gone messing around in the surf. The way the little sand crabs tickled her palm as they scurried trying to return to the water. The way sandpipers sucked up sand fleas in the retreating surf. The cry of gulls and the salt tang carried along the cool sea breeze that lifted her drying hair. She smiled. She was alive and whole and maybe that was all that mattered.

“Are we really gonna live here?” Tim's voice pulled Alexis out of her reverie. “I mean, instead of New York?”

She blinked, then looked at her brother further down the balcony and shrugged. “Dunno,” she said. “I guess so. I can think of lots of other worse places to live than Aptos.”

Tim laughed. “Yeah, I guess.”

“You doing okay?” she asked him.

Tim nodded. “I think so. And you?”

“I think so,” she echoed.

“Does that nondisclosure stuff apply in private, too?”

Alexis considered that for a moment. “I'm not sure. I hope not.”

“Why?”

“'Cause we need to talk about it in order to get over it. That's what they say anyway. Post-trauma and all that.”

Tim snorted. “Yeah, right.”

“Oh, don't tell me you're not post-traumatized...or whatever?”

“I'm not post-traumatized or whatever,” said Tim emphatically.

“Uh-huh. Sure, you're not.”

“I'm not,” he said defensively.

Alexis walked over to her brother and moved to hug him.

“Hey!” he protested. “Put some clothes on first.”

“Doesn't a towel count?”

“No!”

“Seriously? It's thicker than most...okay, all...of my tee-shirts.”

Tim crossed his arms defiantly. “It's still a towel.”

She eyed him. “I have wraparound sun-dresses exactly like this.”

“But they're not towels.”

Alexis rolled her eyes. “Boys,” she said, then winked at Tim. “But seriously, though. We went through a lot of stuff in just a couple of days, more than most people we know see their whole lives. That's gotta leave a mark, you know?”

Tim turned his left wrist to show the developing scab, then opened his hand to show the healing burn across his palm. “It did,” he said bluntly.

“I meant...”

“Yeah, I know what you meant,” he interrupted. “Sorry,” he added. “I guess you're right.”

Alexis looked down at her own wrist. Fresh blood caked around the old scab. She had numerous other scrapes and bruises all over most of the rest of her body and so did Tim. She reached toward her wrist, then forcibly curled her fingers against her palm. “Does yours itch?” she asked.

“Yeah. Trying to ignore it.”

“Is it working?”

“Kinda.”

“Still doesn't answer the question of whether or not we're allowed to talk to each other about it.”

“Why not? I mean, we know it all anyway, don't we?”

“I guess.” Alexis frowned. “Oh, my gosh! What are we gonna tell Mom?”

“Uh...that we fell down some stairs?”

Alexis' eyes narrowed. “Oh, right. Like she's gonna believe that. We each have a hole in our left wrist, you have burn marks across your palms, you're still having a little trouble with your coordination and we both look like we've been rolling around in blackberry bushes.”

“Oh.” He paused. “We could make something up.”

Alexis snorted. “Yeah, right. When was the last time we tried lying to Mom? She's not stupid, you know.”

“I didn't mean it like that.”

“Okay, but...I don't know. I don't think she gets us kids, but she's still pretty smart.”

“So what are we gonna tell her?”

“Uh...”

“You brought it up.”

Alexis frowned. “Hmm.” She pondered that for a few moments. “No idea. Maybe Grandpa will tell her and we won't have to?”

“Maybe.” Tim shrugged. “What are they gonna do if we tell her? About all the dinosaurs and stuff?”

Alexis laughed briefly. “Well...I don't think they'll put us in juvie. And it's not like our allowances are ever gonna cover the fine for squealing about it.”

Tim looked out at the ocean and blew a bunch of air out between his lips. “Is it just me,” he said, “but do you kind of feel like not-a-kid right now?”

Alexis chortled. “You have no idea,” she said as she turned toward the lowering sun. “Not sure what I feel like. Especially with this raptor in my head.”

“So are you gonna, like, get multiple personalities or something?”

Alexis groaned. “Oh, gosh, I hope not.”

“As in, your dinosaur self would take over and start eating raw steak and then your Lex self would wake up and...”

“Agh! Stop it!”

Tim giggled.

She looked sharply at her brother. “That's not funny!”

“Yes, it is.”

“Is not. It's gross, is what it is. Look, if you see me even start to do something like that, you stop me, you hear?”

“And miss out on your reaction...and Mom's?”

“I mean it!”

“You could always claim the steak tar...what's that called?”

“Steak tartar?”

“Yeah, that.”

“Euw!”

“Or that you're doing method acting for a role as a zombie?”

“Hrmph. Besides, Mom doesn't buy meat anyway.”

“Who knows? We could be at the store, walk by the meat section and...” Tim broke off with a giggle.

Alexis groaned. “You're hopeless.” She turned toward her room. “And now I'm hungry.”

“See? I told you you're a meat-asaurus.”

“I am not!” she protested as she stepped inside and shut the door. Brothers.

She put on some clean clothes and peered at the dirty ones still on the floor outside the bathroom. She sighed. She liked that shirt! And no amount of washing was going to get all the blood out of it. Still, maybe that swirly pattern would hide it. The jeans...those were soaked with blood, which wasn't even fresh anymore, and were probably a total loss. And the sneakers? Maybe it was time she started doing yard work or something. She decided to toss the shirt into the wash and deal with the rest of it later.

She walked down to the kitchen and poured herself a large bowl of organic granola and an additional glass of milk. She was suddenly glad the family had never gone full vegan. That would have been annoying. She ate ravenously. She hadn't been aware of being so hungry. Then again, she hadn't eaten anything since right before...she shook off the memory.

“You okay?” asked Tim from the other side of the breakfast bar.

“Yeah. Just thinking about the last time we ate anything.”

“That was right before...” Tim shuddered. “No wonder we're hungry.” He poured some granola for himself, then nearly fumbled the glass milk jug. He scowled at it.

“You gonna be okay?” she asked through a mouth full of cereal.

Tim nodded, flexing both his hands. “Eventually. I think. The doctors said so, anyway.”

Alexis grunted. Grandpa had arranged for his personal physician to treat her and Tim. She'd never liked being poked and prodded, but she'd somehow disliked it a lot more than usual. She'd blamed it on the stress, the fatigue, and whatever else had gone along with her ordeal on Isla Nublar. In the end, they'd both just been told to keep the wounds clean, get plenty of rest, fluids, and protein, and to immediately tell a grown-up...basically meaning Mom...if anything changed for the worse.

They ate the rest of their meal in silence. Alexis split a block of tofu with Tim, who only ate half of his, and then devoured half a pint of organic goat-milk ice cream. After that, they sat on the couch and watched the news for a while. At some point, and Alexis had no idea when, she nodded off to sleep.

* * *

Alexis Murphy awoke into darkness, screaming at the top of her lungs. She didn't know how long it took her to stop, but it couldn't have been long.

“Lex?” Tim called from out of the dark.

Alexis barely heard him over her ragged breathing and the blood pounding in her ears. She was sure she was going to hyperventilate.

“Lex!” Tim sounded more insistent.

Alexis started to calm down. “What?” she asked timidly.

“Why were you screaming?”

She blinked in the darkness. She couldn't remember. No, actually, she almost remembered. Not that almost remembering was any more helpful. “Dunno,” she said. She knew that sounded lame.

“You wake us both up screaming like that and you don't know why?”

“I don't remember. And I don't know if I want to remember.”

“Then how are you gonna know how to stop it?” He paused. “You... _do_ want to not do that, right?”

“Duh.” She paused. “Sorry. Of course I don't.”

“Think it'll happen again?”

“How should I know? It's only the second time!” She suddenly realized she hadn't mentioned that to the doctor who'd examined her. But who thinks of those things? It had all been bumps and scrapes and such. Besides, even if she'd thought of it, how was she supposed to know it was going to happen again?

“Can we get Mom to put you in a sound-proof room?”

“Tim!”

“Sorry. I think. But that scared me as much as it did in the helicopter.”

“Oh, you think I enjoyed it?”

Tim sighed. “Yeah...sorry...again.”

“I know you're not trying to be difficult. Not anymore.”

“How do you know?”

Alexis groaned. “No idea. It's just...well, you're still a boy and you're still my brother, but you're not...irritating. Not like you were before...before you know.”

At first, Tim was silent. Then, “Don't tell anyone, okay?”

Alexis snorted brief laughter.

“What time is it, anyway?” asked Tim.

“What? Why?”

“You woke me up.”

“Us up,” Alexis corrected.

“Whatever.”

Alexis grunted. That sounded more like the brother she knew. She stood up and padded across the living room, somehow avoiding the coffee table. She looked poked her head out the sliding glass door that let onto the lower back deck. The sky was starting to lighten.

“A little before dawn,” she declared once she'd withdrawn again into the house.

“A little before dawn?” asked Tim. “Since when do you talk about it like that?”

“What's wrong with it?”

“Nothing. But you've always been, like, six-fifty-seven, or whatever.”

Alexis shrugged in the dark. “Does it matter?”

“Dunno. But if the sun's not up, I'm going back to sleep.” Tim stood up, then yelped as he hit his shin on the coffee table. Alexis heard him grumble as he climbed the stairs. Then silence.

Alexis stood there in the gloom, counting her heartbeats, listening to the way her blood swished through the veins near her ears. She finally padded back to the couch, but then stretched out on the carpet instead. Before long, the darkness of the room faded into the darkness of sleep.

* * *

“Lex! Lex!” Tim Murphy's voice cut into Alexis' consciousness. He was practically yelling.

She turned to look into her brother's wide eyes. She was suddenly aware of her own rapid breathing, the sweat beading up on her skin. “Wh...what?” she stammered.

“You were screaming again.”

Alexis leaned back, catching herself on her hands and exhaled. “Sorry,” she said at length.

“Nightmares?” Tim asked.

At first, she didn't respond. She realized she actually remembered what she'd been dreaming, and remembered it vividly. What was she supposed to say? That they weren't nightmares exactly? Would he believe her? She wasn't sure how much she believed it herself. She cocked her head and considered her brother for a few moments. “Not really,” she said finally.

“Then what?”

“Memories...I think.” She tipped her head back and blew air up at the ceiling, her breath dislodging a wisp of her hair. After a moment, she looked back at Tim. “Do you have to hover?”

Time grunted, then stood up. “I'm just concerned, that's all.”

Alexis smiled. That somehow reassured her. She glanced at the window. It was light. She'd clearly slept well past dawn. Her stomach growled.

“Yeah,” said Tim, “me too.” He padded toward the kitchen, his gait still awkward.

Alexis frowned. Mom was going to throw a fit over that. That and the broken ribs he'd sustained undergoing CPR. Hopefully he'd recover. At least, the doctors were apparently optimistic, Tim being as young as he was.

She twisted to lift herself off the floor and froze. She sniffed. She smelled blood and...something else. And it was fresh...very fresh. She looked at her wrist, but the wound was fully scabbed over, as were all her other scrapes.

“Tim?” she called. “Did you cut yourself?”

“This morning? Uh...no. Why?”

She didn't answer. If she wasn't bleeding and if her brother wasn't either, then...her thoughts suddenly crashed into each other. Tentatively, she reached between her legs...and felt something damp. She pulled her hand back and examined her fingers. They looked slightly pink. She sniffed at them.

Alexis groaned, then flopped onto her back.

“You okay?” said Tim from the kitchen.

“Yeah,” she said. “I guess.” Great...just great. It was bad enough she had to deal with what had happened to her on Isla Nublar. And she knew full well she'd have started becoming a woman sooner or later. It was just that she'd somehow expected it to arrive a little more later than sooner. And now she had to deal with both!

Maybe all that stress had brought it on a little early. In any event, she couldn't avoid it. But she was dead certain neither she nor her family were going to even remotely enjoy having teenage pubescent hormones piled on top of her dinosaur thing. She was also just as sure she'd never had to deal with menstruation when she'd been a velociraptor. She groaned again. It was all so confusing!

“Lex? Are you sure you're okay?”

Geez, he was persistent! Alexis got to her feet and padded toward the other end of the house.

“Um,” said Tim, “isn't that Mom's room? Why are you going to Mom's room?”

“Never mind,” said Alexis flatly.

“But...”

“I said, never mind!” She nearly snapped it. She went to Mom's bathroom and rummaged through every drawer and cupboard until she found what she needed.

One of Mom's pads in hand, she trotted back to her room, ignoring Tim's inquiries along the way. She quickly changed her bottoms and shoved the pad where she thought it was probably supposed to go. Mom had clearly left certain details out of “the talk.” Which reminded her...wasn't Mom supposed to be home sometime soon?

Alexis trotted back to the kitchen and poured herself a large bowl of granola and a tall glass of orange juice.

“What was all that?” asked Tim.

“Never mind,” said Alexis between bites.

“Lex? Is there something you're not telling me?”

“Yes,” she said curtly.

“Like what?”

“I said never mind,” she growled.

“Okay,” said Tim defensively. “Geez. I was just asking.”

“No, you were pushing. And it's private.”

“Is it a dinosaur thing?”

“Hrmph.” Alexis took another bit of cereal. “No,” she added at length. “It's a girl thing. And that's all you need to know.”

“Oh. Sorry I asked.”

Alexis could have returned with some sort of zinger, but decided to let it go. Besides, she was obviously growing up and that was the sort of thing grown-ups were supposed to do. She wasn't sure how long that resolution was going to last. She had it on good authority that teenage girls, which she herself was officially one, were highly prone to being bitch queens of the universe with erratic mood swings and all that. But not all girls wound up that bad and she hoped she'd be one of those. On the other hand, there was that dinosaur thing and she had no idea what that was going to do to her.

Breakfast continued in relative silence. Every now and again, Alexis met her brother's eye and held it for a few moments before one or the other of them looked away at something else. She wondered what he was thinking. Was he afraid she was going to snap at him again?

“Look,” she said as she ran water into their bowls in the sink, “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just...kind of embarrassing and I really don't want to talk about it. Okay?”

Tim regarded her for several moments. “Fine,” he said finally. “But what was that about blood?” he asked as he opened the refrigerator. “And what does...” He looked sharply at his sister. She practically glared back. “Are you...” He broke off with a highly annoying, boyish giggle.

“It's not funny!” Alexis snapped.

“Yes, it is,” Tim insisted.

“I swear to Ard-Khar-Lla'ia,” Alexis snarled, “I'll hurt you.”

Tim blinked at her. “What?”

She repeated it.

“That didn't help,” said Tim flatly.

“Never mind,” said Alexis. She stepped over toward the window and gazed out toward the ocean, her hands clasped behind her back. “So when's Mom supposed to be home?” she asked at length.

“I dunno,” said Tim. “I've been too busy trying not to get eaten by dinosaurs, remember?”

“Wish I didn't,” she said. That must have been the understatement of the year. Well...maybe not, but definitely in the top five.

Alexis heard her brother pad back across the room. Something slid from a shelf. More bare footsteps, then Tim flopped heavily onto a piece of furniture. Alexis turned her head. “Do I want to know?” she asked.

Tim held up a book. The word “Dinosaurs” practically jumped off the front cover in what she guessed were supposed to have been large, friendly letters. But given the events of the past several days, she highly doubted that word would ever look friendly to her again, regardless of what font the publisher decided to use.

“You don't say,” said Alexis flatly.

Tim shrugged. “Thought it might be good for a laugh.”

Alexis felt her eyebrow shoot up. “Excuse me? We almost get eaten by a tee rex...twice...nearly trampled by a flock of gallimimus, then confronted by the Khantushaki, and you think that...” She pointed at the book. “...is humor material?”

Tim giggled.

“What?”

“You called them...the velociraptors...or deinonychus...you called them Khan...what was that?”

“Khantushaki.”

“Yeah, that.”

“And your point?”

Tim lowered the book and shrugged. “It's just that we've learned way more about dinosaurs than anyone. Which makes us the most knowledgeable people in the world. And I just want to point and laugh at what someone thought they knew.”

Alexis sighed. “That's my brother,” she said, not particularly trying to hide the eye-rolling in her voice. She returned her attention to the view off the back deck. Then, “I'm stepping outside for a bit. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. Just onto the deck.”

“Okay,” said Tim.

Alexis thought her brother sounded more than a bit indifferent. But she could somehow sense he felt nervous about being left alone. Not that she could really blame him. She recalled, despite her efforts to the contrary, how terrified she'd been after she and Alan Grant had reached the ground below the wall that dark and stormy night. No, she didn't blame her brother one bit.

She opened the door and stepped out into the warming morning air. She leaned on the wooden railing, listening to the cry of gulls and the gentle sound of breaking surf. A light sea breeze ruffled her hair, bringing a sharp briny smell. She didn't remember noticing those things as much before. Had her near-death experiences somehow heightened her senses? Or maybe it was related to her period. She'd been told that women sometimes became highly sensitive to smells and such during that time of the month. She hoped it was that, and not something the dinosaur inside her was doing to her.

She exhaled heavily. What in the world was she supposed to do about that, anyway? Hopefully it would turn out to be nothing at all. But what about the dreams-that-weren't-dreams? They terrified her in a way she couldn't describe. The more she thought about them, the more real they felt and that scared her even more. The thing was, Thelen...Muldoon...hadn't seemed particularly concerned about his own dino-memories. Was that a good sign? Alexis didn't know.

The only clear thing she did know was that she was changing. Some of that was certainly a result of her beginning puberty. But how much? She was aware that there was a range of...symptoms, she supposed. And if some of the changes she felt were because of the dinosaur, would she be able to pass those off as unusual mood swings or something? She exhaled again, wishing she knew someone who could help her find answers, nondisclosure agreement or not.

Alexis let herself become lost in the long moments watching the sea. It really was mesmerizing. She watched the slow motion of the waves break on the shore, the birds gliding back and forth on the breeze, and the inexorable march of shadows as the sun climbed into the sky. She smiled, reveling in its warmth on her skin.

She heard the door slide open behind her. It was probably Tim. He'd probably let the silence get to him. And he was probably already bored enough to feel the need to bug his big sister.

“Lex!”

Alexis whirled around. “Mom!” She took two large steps and all but slammed into her mother, wrapping her arms around her. She felt tears welling up her her eyes and she began to cry.

“Lex, honey, what's wrong?”

Her mother had a point. Alexis wasn't usually that prone to tears. Maybe it was hormonal. Maybe it was post-traumatic. Maybe it had something to do with the dinosaur thing. It was probably all three, really, and possibly some other stuff she wasn't aware of. But how could she answer Mom's question? She didn't even know how to articulate it to herself, let alone to someone who hadn't even been there. And so Alexis just cried.

After who knew how long, Alexis felt the energy of her little episode start to taper off.

Her mom pulled her away gently and looked into her eyes. “Your grandpa told me about what happened.”

Alexis blinked. “He...he did?” she said, her voice a bit gravelly from her crying.

Mom nodded. She took Alexis' left hand, peered at her wrist, and grimaced.

“It...it looks worse than it feels,” Alexis said. “Itches a little. But it doesn't hurt anymore.”

“Timmy told me,” said Mom absently. “He says his still bothers him.”

“I guess.” A pause. “How much did Grandpa tell you?”

“Not a lot. Just...we'd better go inside.”

Alexis followed her mother into the house. She pushed Tim's feet off the sofa and sat down, ignoring his protests.

“You two need anything?” asked Mom from the kitchen.

“Coke?” said Tim.

“Orange juice?” said Alexis.

At length, Mom returned with three beverages and sat down in an easy chair facing her children.

“So,” said Mom, “what really happened?”

“We're not supposed to say,” said Tim.

“Yeah,” said Alexis. “They made us sign nondisclosure agreements.”

“There's...a clause in there about parental rights,” said Mom.

Oh. Right. She vaguely remembered that. There had been so many pages to that thing! And all just to say she wouldn't spill the beans!

“I had to sign it, too,” said Mom.

“Oh. So...you know about...everything?”

“Well...Dad was a little vague on a lot of it. Only that there had been an accident and that you two were attacked by dangerous wild animals.”

Attacked by dangerous wild animals? That was another understatement!

“But one thing I don't understand...what animal makes a single hole like those?” Mom indicated her children's wrists.

“How much are we allowed to tell you?” asked Alexis.

“Everything.”

“Dinosaurs,” said Tim.

Mom looked like she nearly choked on her lemonade. “Excuse me?”

“Dinosaurs,” Tim repeated.

“Honey, you know as well as everyone else that dinosaurs are extinct.”

“Not anymore. Grandpa brought them back to life.” Then he added, “Well, his scientists did, but, you know.”

“That's...crazy.”

Oh, Alexis was pretty sure her mother had absolutely no idea just how crazy things really were.

Tim continued. “They cloned them from DNA they took out of mosquitoes trapped in fossilized amber.”

“He's right,” said Alexis. “A tee rex tried eat us. Twice.”

“And then a herd of gallimimus tried to trample us,” said Tim.

“And then Tim got electrocuted on a high-voltage fence.”

Mom's hand flew to her face. “Oh, my God!”

“They didn't tell you about that part?” asked Alexis.

Mom shook her head.

“Doctor Grant gave me CPR,” said Tim. “They...said it's all in my medical report.”

“Don't worry,” said Alexis, “he says we don't owe him anything.”

“Especially since Lex...and Mister Muldoon...saved us from the tee rex...and the velociraptors.”

Mom's mouth hung open. “You were bitten...by dinosaurs?”

“Uh...not exactly,” said Tim. “They clawed us.”

Mom looked at Tim's wrist, then at Alexis', but both their wounds were turned inward. “That's a scratch?”

“Puncture,” said Alexis. “Beyond that, it's...really hard to explain.”

“Try, please.” Mom almost sounded like she was pleading. Alexis hadn't heard her mother do that often. In fact, it was rather rare, and mostly when she or Tim were sick with something Mom needed to diagnose, but had usually turned out to be a cold, the flu, or gastroenteritis.

Alexis sighed. Well...she asked for it!

“They can talk,” Tim butted in.

“What can talk?” asked Mom.

“The velociraptors,” said Tim. “They can talk.”

“Well...dogs and cats can talk...sort of...and parrots, but...”

“It's true,” Alexis interrupted. “The Khantushaki...that's what we...they...call themselves. They're sentient. Just like us.”

Mom's jaw dropped again.

“There's...something else,” Alexis said, almost glad to change the subject. She was even less sure how to broach that topic and it was even a normal thing! At least she could draw some amount of comfort in that. At her mother's quizzical look, she continued. “I...I'm officially a woman...I guess.”

Tim snickered. Alexis glared at him, then growled slightly. Tim ceased.

Mom cocked her head, then both eyebrows shot up. She glanced down at Alexis' waist, then back to her eyes. “You mean...you had your first...period?”

Alexis nodded. “First thing this morning.”

Mom smiled. “Oh, honey, that's wonderful!”

“Not from where I'm sitting,” Alexis almost growled. “It's...well, so far, it's kind of annoying.”

“Well...yes, I suppose. But, really, it means you're growing up. Your father might not like it, but so much the better.”

Alexis tittered. The year or so, she'd been going through a bit of growth spurt. Dad had remarked multiple times to the effect that he felt like he was losing his little girl. Alexis had never really been sure what to make of that. It hadn't ever been like she was going anywhere. And it wasn't like she was going to stay all Laura Ingalls Wilder forever anyway.

Although she also suspected that Mom had been looking forward to her daughter becoming interested in things like high heels and so on so the two of them could do more woman shopping. So far, Alexis hadn't developed that interest. Well, not much anyway. But she was only twelve...well, almost thirteen, but still.

“How's that going? Anything unusual?”

Alexis fought not to roll her eyes. She sighed. “I had to borrow one of your pads. And the smell is driving me crazy.”

“What smell?”

Alexis cocked an eyebrow. “Really, Mom?” At her mother's continued quizzical look, Alexis continued. “The smell of blood? Doesn't it bother you?”

“Um...no. I don't really smell it.”

“Oh.” Alexis tossed her hands into the air. “Maybe I'm supposed to get used to it?”

Mom shrugged. Great. The one person who should have all the answers about incipient womanhood didn't seem equipped to deal with some of Alexis' most important questions. She was beginning to wonder more than ever if just that little bit of dinosaur blood circulating around in her veins was doing stuff to her. How many more times would she wonder about that, anyway? It was enough to drive a girl...woman...to distraction! As if she wasn't distracted enough already.

Alexis just groaned. Mom stood up, put down her drink and rubbed Alexis on the back between her shoulders. It felt really good.

“Honey,” said Mom, “whatever it is, I'm sure it's perfectly natural. These things always affect different people in different ways anyhow. Just be sure to let me know how you're feeling, okay? And if anything changes, you'll be sure to let me know, won't you?”

Alexis turned her head and looked at her mother as best she could. It kind of sounded like Mom was patronizing her. But then again, the tone she'd just used was nothing new. Alexis guessed that while Mom knew in her head that her daughter was becoming a woman, her heart probably still made her see the little girl in pig tails.

Alexis just nodded. The menstruation thing seemed straightforward enough, for all that it was a new experience for her. But how was she supposed to talk to her mom about the dinosaur thing? She didn't even understand it herself and she was still convinced that telling Mom would result in hundreds of billable psychiatric hours. She wasn't crazy! Then again, how many crazy people actually knew they were crazy? She supposed she'd just have to endure it.

“So tell me more about the...” Mom gestured at Alexis' left hand.

Uh-oh.

Before Alexis could say anything, Tim blurted out the whole thing. Curiously, he left out the bits about reincarnated Khantushaki. Alexis wasn't about to mention that if she could help it.

Alexis felt Mom rub at her shoulders. “Oh, you poor dears!” said Mom. She sounded genuinely concerned and alarmed. “And they didn't try to eat you?”

Tim shook his head. “Guess they decided we didn't taste good,” he said. His statement was almost laughable and might have been, if it weren't for other kinds of modern animals, like sharks, that didn't particularly care for the taste of human flesh. So at least there was some observed precedent for that.

Mom let out a sort of nervous-sounding chortle. “Well, I'm glad. Because...” She paused. “...because it would have killed me if they had. Eaten you, I mean.”

Alexis liked that. It made her feel loved and she really needed that.

“So,” said Tim, “are you and Dad...officially divorced now?”

Alexis wasn't sure she was glad of the change of subject. Sure, it got them off the topic of dinosaurs. But her parents' divorce was at least as sore of a subject. She loved both her parents and so it had just killed her inside to see them fighting so much the last few years. She didn't really understand what had happened. It had seemed like one day, they'd been very much in love the way a Mom and Dad were supposed to be. And then the next, they weren't.

Mom had reassured her and Tim that it hadn't been their fault. But wasn't that they usual line parents gave their kids? Alexis had believed her, of course, and still did. But it all still bothered her very deeply. Besides, no Khantushakal couple would ever have let things go so far. She fought back another groan.

Mom nodded. She looked like she was forcing back tears. Alexis could smell them. If the whole thing had bothered her mom so much, and it clearly did, why had she filed for divorce? It was unsettling.

“I have sole custody of the two of you,” said Mom.

Alexis felt her eyes narrow. She understood what that meant, of course. Mom and her attorney had gone over that with her and Tim a couple of weeks before. But somehow, just then, it made her feel like a piece of property.

“Will we ever get to see Dad?” asked Tim.

“Maybe,” said Mom. “We're still working that out. Your father...was being really difficult about that.”

That was an understatement. Alexis and Tim had both been outside doing yard work during one of their parents' legal meetings. They'd both heard Mom and Dad yelling at the tops of their lungs and they'd been at the other end of the house! She didn't remember them ever yelling quite like that before. Clearly, it had been, and apparently still was, a sore spot.

“So...now what?” asked Alexis.

Mom took a deep breath, held it, then let it back out. “Now, we spend the summer unwinding from all this.”

What did that mean? It wasn't as if Alexis and her brother didn't spend every summer unwinding from the school year. Only none of the previous summers had begun with the two of them being chased by dinosaurs. As a matter of fact, up until that point, the most dangerous animal that had ever chased either of them had been the Johnsons' Yorkshire terrier just down the street. That, or some hoodlum in New York.

“Isn't that what we always do?” said Tim.

“Well,” said Mom, “that's what the two of you do. But I think we need to spend some time doing a little family bonding.”

Uh-huh. Right. Somehow, that sounded as ominous as a tyrannosaur's foot-falls.

“Isn't that,” said Tim, “where we go up into the mountains and spend every night around a campfire singing 'Kum-ba-ya' and eating 'smores?”

Mom and Alexis both laughed.

“What?” said Tim.

“It might involve that,” said Mom. “Come on, I've got some ideas.” She stood up, rifled through a drawer and then through her purse, returning to the living room with a liberal fistful of papers of various sizes, textures, and thicknesses.

Alexis guessed they were mostly brochures and she was right. The three of them spent the next couple of hours going through them all. It was exhausting! Nearly all of them were...overdone was about the best way she could think to describe them. But that probably came with the territory for high-end family camps. Who knew there were so many just in the western US? She could tell it was going to be a very long summer.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter parallels a portion of "Behind Amber Eyes."

Alexis Murphy stood before a large farmhouse. There was something peculiar about it. She'd seen a lot of different types of architecture. California had a way of producing a wide range of building styles. Not that she knew how to identify much of it beyond the basics: A-frame; split-level; two-story; geodesic dome; and so on, with any and every combination and variation imaginable.

The house in front of her was, like most of the ones she'd seen since pulling out of Reno, a ranch style. Well, more or less. It had the same general profile: single-story; wraparound porch; offset entry. But its walls were mortared stone, its roof much higher than was typical, a stone chimney rising from its peak and another barely visible beyond it, stout round beams extending beyond the eaves. Other bits protruded from the house, bits that could have been additions, or could have been previously separate structures that had been joined together at some point, and there was a small upstairs that deviated from a typical Ranch.

Several steps led from ground level to the building's solid-looking front door. The mailbox down at the foot of the drive had said “Muldoon” on it in what she was given to understand were large, friendly letters.

Large and friendly. She could think of all sorts of things that matched that description. Only none of them seemed to apply to her present predicament.

The last week and a half, beginning the morning she'd awoken to discover she'd started her first period, had been a continual string of nightmares and daymares. And they'd grown progressively worse.

Two days after the start of her period, she'd even woken up snarling and growling. Even after she'd calmed down, she continued to snarl and growl all day, literally snapping at anything that moved, and glaring furiously at her mother and brother. In fact, she'd had to physically restrain herself from launching out the front door at the Smithers woman's dachshunds. The following two days had been almost as bad. The third day, however, she'd felt almost normal and the day after that, her bleeding had stopped.

Both Mom and Tim had been greatly alarmed, though Alexis was unsure which of the three of them had been more frightened over it. Mom had been about to pick up the phone to call a psychiatrist friend of hers when Grandpa had called.

One part of the conversation had led to another and before she knew it, she, Tim, and Mom had set off on a road trip to western Wyoming. Mom had been incredibly vague about the whole thing the entire trip. All she'd said was that Grandpa knew someone who lived in Wyoming who had the best chance of helping Alexis.

Fortunately--or unfortunately, depending on how one looked at it—Alexis knew exactly what that meant. She knew who the Muldoons were and who was living with them. But she hadn't dared say a word. Instead, she'd smiled and nodded and pretended to be more withdrawn than she really was. Not that she'd needed to do much pretending.

Her nightmares and daymares had been, as near as she could tell, memories from her dinosaur life. Somehow, they'd disturbed her greatly and she really didn't know why. Many of them had been quite benign, images that could have been out of any picture book of the US, only with dinosaurs instead of things like cows and sheep. Yet they'd terrified her nonetheless. She hoped the whole thing was psychological.

She never would have guessed that stepping onto that plane bound for Costa Rica would turn out to be the first step on a journey that would ultimately lead her to a ranch in Wyoming owned by a veterinarian and an English hunter. Her life seemed to have suddenly come down with a whole rash of ironies.

“Well,” said Mom, “here we are.”

Alexis just nodded and grunted. What was she supposed to say? Instead, she shouldered her backpack, picked up her suitcase, and followed her mom up the wooden stairs to the expansive wraparound porch, her brother on their heels.

Mom knocked on the door and waited.

After what seemed like forever, Alexis heard foot-falls from within.

The door opened and a girl, probably a couple of years younger than Tim, poked her head out. “Hi,” she said.

“Hello,” said Alexis' mom. “I'm Darielle Hammond and this is my daughter Alexis Murphy. We're here to see Robert Muldoon. I understand he's expecting us?”

The girl looked back and forth from Alexis to her mother. Then she turned around and bellowed, “Mom! It's the dinosaur girl!”

Alexis nearly flinched. Who was that girl and how did she know about the connection between Alexis and dinosaurs? If she was Thelen's...Muldoon's...daughter, that might explain it.

Mom looked at Alexis and raised an eyebrow. “Dinosaur girl?”

Alexis smiled sheepishly. Tim halfheartedly stifled a snicker from behind her. “Not funny,” she said over her shoulder. Then to her mom, “Long story.”

“Well, we had time during the drive,” said Mom.

Alexis considered that for a moment. “I...I'm not ready to talk about it.” That much was true. In fact, her mom had repeatedly asked about it over the three days it had taken them to make the drive.

Alexis hadn't said much. That had complicated things somewhat when she'd awoken each morning in some motel room screaming at the top of her lungs. Each outburst hadn't lasted long and each had apparently been a little less severe than the one the previous day, but she could tell Mom was nervous about possibly having the cops called on suspicion of violence.

Alexis had snorted to herself. As if the cops had any idea what true violence really was. Only she and Tim really did. Okay, and Mister Muldoon...and Sholtha...but still. In any event, it hadn't come to that and she'd have sworn Mom's shoulders had visibly relaxed once clearing the city limits of each town along the way.

Mom was worried. Not that Alexis blamed her. She was worried herself. She didn't know what was happening to her, let alone how or why. And she still didn't know how to talk about the dinosaur thing, mainly because she didn't really understand it. Only that the soul of a velociraptor had been reborn inside of her.

And so Alexis stood on the front porch of the Muldoon ranch house, luggage in hand, having just been called “the dinosaur girl” by an eight-year-old girl.

After what felt like forever, a set of footsteps approached from somewhere inside the house. The girl backed up and the door opened wide to reveal a woman who looked about Mom's age. She wore an expression Alexis was at a loss to identify. Worry, maybe? If so, why?

The woman's expression quickly changed to a smile, but one with a hint of...was that sympathy? Alexis wasn't sure, only that there was more behind it than the sort of smile she'd have expected from, say, a friend or family member.

“Good evenin',” she said cheerily. Her voice carried the sort of Western twang Alexis had thought only existed in the movies. “Darielle Hammond, I take it?”

“Missus Muldoon, yes?” sad Mom. The two women shook hands

“You must be Alexis,” said Mrs. Muldoon. She extended a hand. “Jill Muldoon,” she said.

“Hi,” said Alexis shaking her hand.

Mom introduced Tim. “My...husband...filled me in,” Jill continued. Somehow, she didn't sound too thrilled about it.

Alexis couldn't blame her. She herself wasn't terribly excited about it either. The only reason she was there was because it seemed to be the best option. It was that, let the nightmares and so on just continue, or have to explain everything, including the dinosaur stuff, to some shrink. Alexis had a feeling spending however much time it turned out to be at the Muldoon Ranch might actually turn out to be not just the lesser of several evils, but maybe even the best thing she could possible do under the circumstances.

“Why don't you all come in?” Jill asked. Though Alexis was sure there was more behind that than a simple invitation.

“Thank-you,” said Mom, “that is, if it wouldn't be too much trouble? I mean...”

“Oh, no, it's no trouble at all.” Jill didn't sound entirely convinced about that.

Alexis and Tim followed their mother into the house. The entry's hardwood flooring bore heavy scratches that looked fresh, showing pale against the surrounding finished wood. Jill led them into a living area.

Its floor was covered in wide stone slabs of a light grey color. A large fireplace stood to one side of the room, set into the wall that separated that space from the kitchen. Another wall set a dining room apart, its table and chairs peeking around a corner. Two sofas and several bookshelves with a few small tables sat here and there.

Jill gestured to one of the sofas. “Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked. “We have soda pop, juice, milk, water, and...beer.”

Alexis looked to her mom. She was thirsty, but was unsure if she should accept.

Mom nodded. “Water's fine.”

“Do you have lemonade?” Alexis asked.

Jill nodded.

“Coke?” said Tim.

“RC Cola,” said Jill. “Will that work?”

“Sure,” said Tim with a shrug.

Jill retreated into the kitchen, her daughter on her heels.

Alexis set her bags on the floor in a corner and carefully lowered herself onto a couch next to Mom. She stiffened. Were those claw marks on the upholstery? She fingered one of them, gently pulling on it with a fingernail. It sure looked like it.

And the mixture of smells was disorienting. There was the charred wood smell from the fireplace, though not fresh. Some of the volumes on the shelves had that unique old-book smell. Bacon grease drifted in from the kitchen, though Alexis was sure it had been cooked some hours before, along with the faint tang of hours-old coffee. And there were odors of wet dog, dry dog, mice, three different cats, five humans...and the unmistakable scent of velociraptor. She didn't know how she knew all that, let alone why her nose was that sensitive. Did every pubescent girl smell that well? If so, it had to have been the best-kept secret ever.

She glanced at her mom sitting next to her, but there was no sign she'd noticed any of it. Maybe she could pass it off as tension. On the other hand, being able to smell everything was probably far enough down the list of Mom's concerns as to be largely irrelevant. For that matter, it wasn't very high on Alexis' own list of problems. The waking up and screaming bit, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. If she could solve only that, she'd almost happily deal with whatever else was in store for her.

She heard Jill quietly say something to her daughter, then the sound of a sliding door opening and closing. Then clinking glasses, running water, and a refrigerator door. Jill walked back into the room, two beverages in each hand, which she set onto coasters on a well-worn wooden coffee table. Its surface also bore scratches, several sets of three short, parallel grooves maybe a quarter inch apart and on one corner, three divots an inch apart that looked like someone had taken a sharp chisel to the wood.

“So,” said Jill, settling herself on a simple wooden chair, “what seems to be the trouble?”

Alexis cocked her head slightly. Didn't Jill know?

“Um,” said Mom, “I...I was under the impression you'd been informed. I mean...”

Jill chuckled. “My husband filled me in. Sort of.” She looked straight at Alexis. “But if you're going to be staying here, it'll be helpful to get the rest of the story, as they say.”

“Oh,” said Alexis. How much did Jill know? The whole thing? Thelen...Robert...had obviously brought the velociraptors with him. And the other dinosaurs, too, just like he'd said back in Isla Nublar. Alexis could smell them on the breeze the moment she'd stepped out of the car. Surely he'd explained to his wife just why he'd hauled a bunch of dinosaurs back home with him. But just how much had he said?

Alexis took a deep breath, then began to talk, being careful only to include those things she knew Mom also knew. Hopefully that would give some background without breaking that annoying nondisclosure thing. She was specifically vague about anything related to dinosaurs.

When Alexis had finished her story, Jill sat there for a few long moments, then sipped her lemonade in a way that looked thoughtful. Alexis wished she knew how to read people's expressions better.

“I see,” said Jill finally. She looked at Mom. “Well...all that sounds about like what Robert told me. Granted, it's at least third-hand by now and I sure as hell have more questions than you can shake a stick at, believe you me. Sounds kinda like textbook post-traumatic stress to me, though.”

“Then why am I not waking up screaming?” Tim asked.

Jill shrugged. “Dunno. You tell me.”

“If I knew, I wouldn't have to ask.”

Jill grunted in acknowledgment. “'Fair enough, I guess.” She shrugged. “I'm not a psychologist anyway.”

Alexis saw her mom stiffen. “Then...why are we here?” Mom asked.

“Therapy.”

“So...Mister Muldoon's a psychiatrist?”

“Not remotely. I'm a large-animal veterinarian. He's a professional hunter.”

“What? Dad said you could help. If you're not...”

The back door ground open and heavy boots thumped a couple paces across the floor.

“You're takin' those off, right?” Jill called over her shoulder.

There was more scuffling that sounded like someone removing their shoes. After a minute, Robert Muldoon walked into the room. He stepped up and bent to kiss Jill. She turned her head slightly and he kissed her cheek.

“Use the mud room next time,” she said quietly.

“Sorry,” he said in his distinctly British accent, “habit.”

“Well, work on it. You need to start setting a better example and the rest of us have better things to do that swab your muddy footprints off the floors.”

“Right. Sorry,” he said again. He looked right at Alexis. “Asthriki,” he said with a nod.

“Thelen,” Alexis responded with a similar nod.

“Tim,” he said with another nod.

“Mister Muldoon,” replied Tim.

“And you must be their mum,” said Robert. He extended his hand. “Robert Muldoon.”

Mom grasped the proffered hand. “Darielle Hammond,” said Mom.

“Pleased to meet you.” He stepped over, pulled another chair away from the wall, flipped it around backward and sat down, resting his forearms on the back. The wounds on his left arm stood out conspicuously in grey, pink, red, yellow, green, purple, blue, black, and brown. Alexis could smell the distinct scents of lymph, blood, and inflamed tissue from the few holes that continued to leak slightly.

She heard Mom gasp slightly.

Robert chuckled and moved his left arm a little. “Looks far worse than it feels. Long story. I'd say it's not why we're all here, but that's an even longer story. So, John tells me you're having a spot of trouble, is that right?” he asked Alexis.

“That's an understatement,” said Mom.

Robert cocked an eyebrow. “No offense,” he said evenly, “but I think it might be best if your daughter answered the questions. If that's alright.”

Mom stiffened, but then nodded.

“Um...yeah,” said Alexis. “Mostly waking up screaming.”

“And why's that?”

Alexis looked Robert in the eyes. For a split second, his human face was replaced with the snout of a velociraptor, dark, rich, green and bronze feathers sticking out around it, the skin a blend of charcoal and russet, the muzzle a lighter shade than the rest and gradating darker toward the eyes. Alexis blinked. Robert cocked his head.

“I don't know,” said Alexis. Why had she said that? She did know, sort of. She just didn't know how to talk about it, not in front of her mother.

Robert raised an eyebrow. “You've been dreaming, haven't you?” It was more of a statement. “And those dreams terrify you, don't they?”

He'd hit the nail right on the head. Had he been having the same sorts of dreams? “Yeah,” she said again.

“Care to tell us more?”

“You mean, more than I just did?”

“Just go over it again. It'll help.”

Alexis sighed, feeling herself physically deflate. She repeated what she'd just told Jill, word for word. She felt a little silly doing that, but she somehow did feel just a little better, less stressed about the whole thing, but just slightly.

Robert grunted, then looked at Mom. “I think we can take it from here, Missus Hammond.”

“It's Miz,” said Mom flatly.

“Oh, right. My mistake. Anyway, I take it John's been over it?”

Mom nodded. It really wasn't that complicated. Grandpa thought Robert could help and Alexis was supposed to stay on the ranch until she was better. Or until it was time to go back home for school. Mom hadn't liked it and Alexis could tell that hadn't changed. In fact, multiple times during the drive Mom had complained about having had to abort the camping plans. Alexis still wasn't sure how she felt about that and Tim had been rather silent on the subject.

“Well, then,” said Robert, “maybe we should all get to know each other a bit better, eh?” He winked at Alexis and she felt her mouth curve up into a slight smile.

She sipped at her lemonade. The man was probably right. As far as Mom was concerned, she was leaving her daughter alone with complete strangers three states and a time zone away. Never mind that Grandpa had personally vouched for them—well, for Robert at least. That alone had convinced Mom to make the trip and Alexis suspected Mom fully intended to go through with the rest of it. But she also knew it would make everyone feel better if they were acquainted with each other. Grown-ups were so complicated sometimes.

Where did Alexis fit into that? She was twelve. But she had a sneaking suspicion that she had at least that many years of the other life. What was that going to mean for her?

“Well,” said Mom, “where do we start?”

“How about from the beginning?” Jill suggested.

“Sure,” said Mom, sipping her water.

Jill began. She'd been born and raised right there on the property. Right on that very floor, no less. She insisted that if one looked very closely, one could still see the stains where her mother's water had broken and where the birthing itself had happened.

Alexis couldn't help but peer at that spot. She wasn't sure. Jill said her father had re-stained the floor some years later after they'd finished having children. A glance told Alexis that Mom seemed darned near horrified at Jill's candor over it all and Tim wore a grin on his face. That figured.

Jill had grown up on the farm, which had been in the family since the mid-nineteenth century. Her several-greats grandparents had built the original cabin that had once stood on the homestead. Over several additions and remodels, only part of that structure remained. But it had been passed down, sometimes involving annoying laws concerning inheritance taxes, ultimately to her.

As a girl, she'd been in FFA, 4-H, Girl Scouts, the NRA—basically, the whole nine yards. She'd gone straight to veterinary school right out of high school, then had promptly returned home. In the meantime, her brothers and sister had all moved away. Several years later, her father had been gored by a bull and died of his injuries. Her mother had followed some years after that, having fallen asleep behind the wheel on her way to visit her brother at the State Pen in Rawlins. The car had flipped and no one had found her until some time the following morning. That had been when Jill had legally inherited the ranch.

Not that she hadn't been doing the work already anyway. She'd met Robert while on a hunting expedition between terms of vet school. The trip had been out in the Wind River Range, her personal stomping grounds. She'd hired on with the guide service as help and for practicum tending to the horses, which she already knew inside and out anyway. Everyone who grew up on a farm in rural Wyoming did.

She and Robert had hit it off immediately. It had been, in Jill's words, a monumental pain in the ass not to let him distract her from her duties. But they'd sat and chatted every chance they got. After the week-long trip, she'd introduced him to her parents. While they'd never really said so one way or the other, she'd always supposed he'd made a good impression. Otherwise, they'd have turned the cold shoulder and her parents had elevated that particular skill into an art form.

They'd spent the whole next year in earnest correspondence and, despite certain challenges--one being a ten-year age gap, another being Robert's frequent traveling--they'd married just after she'd finished her schooling at what she'd called the tender age of twenty. Somehow, she and Robert found that amusing. Their eldest daughter Hannah had been born exactly nine months later, their son George three years after that, and their younger daughter Milly four years after that.

Jill had borne most of the burden of raising the children and that on top of running the ranch. Robert had contributed financially, his own overhead consisting of little more than food and a place to roll out a bedroll most of the time. But his long and frequent absences had put a strain on their marriage.

Jill passed the metaphorical baton over to Thelen...Robert. Alexis suppressed a groan. Was she ever going to straighten that out?

Robert had been born to a minor British aristocratic family in Yorkshire, England. As a second son of a second son, he'd needed to find something resembling a career. The summer before completing his secondary schooling, he'd met John Hammond, Alexis' grandfather, on a pheasant hunting trip. John had remarked on Robert's potential and had offered him a job working with exotic animals and sometimes hunting them down.

It had sounded exciting, so he'd accepted on the spot. His father had immediately protested, but that had had more to do with not having been asked for permission. In short, Robert had passed his exams, then gone off to work for Grandpa.

Some years later, he'd met Jill on that hunting trip and the rest was more or less history.

Alexis remembered Grandpa mentioning Robert once or twice, but seldom in much detail. Grandpa had always been more excited about what he'd been doing than about with whom he'd been doing it. So Alexis found herself filling in some blanks.

Mom apparently found it hard to say much. And Alexis pretty much knew it all anyway. Mom had been groomed for management stuff her whole life. She'd gone to college, earned her MBA, then gone straight to work for InGen. Well, it hadn't exactly been InGen back then. Or, rather, InGen hadn't yet been formed out of Grandpa's parent corporation.

Somewhere along the line, Mom had met Dad, they'd married shortly after that, then Alexis and Tim had been born. Then there was the divorce and the trip out to Wyoming. Not too exciting, as far as Alexis was concerned.

“Okay, well,” said Jill when Mom had finished, “we'd, uh, introduce you to our kids, but they're still out doin' chores. Hope you don't mind.”

Mom shook her head. “Maybe later?”

“Sure. In the meantime, are y'all prepared to spend the night?”

“Oh, no,” said Mom, “we really shouldn't. I mean, we should be going.”

Jill shrugged. “Suit yourself. But there really ain't much between here and Rock Springs. Or Kemmerer if you're goin' that way. Take you a good hour and a half to get to either of 'em. Here, we don't charge you and breakfast's free, too. We've already eaten supper, but leftovers are in the fridge. So how about it?”

Alexis looked at her mother. On the one hand, she kind of wanted to just get on with it all and do whatever it was already so she could get past all the dinosaur stuff and go back to her normal life. On the other hand, she already felt like the Muldoons were family, which meant it might be nice for Mom and Tim to spend just a little more time with them, including their kids. It might even turn out to be fun.

But how were they going to keep the dinosaur thing a secret? She guessed she'd have to more or less wait and see.

“Well,” said Mom pensively, “I suppose we could.”

Alexis saw Tim smile a little. All three of them had already grown a bit tired of sleazy motels. Which was silly, since Mom's job paid really well. Grown-ups sure were confusing. Or maybe Tim's smile had to do with something else. If he started teasing her about anything, she was pretty sure she could make him regret it. She didn't want to do that. Not really. But she'd faced dinosaurs and if he thought she was going to back down from her younger brother, he had another thing coming.

Then again, Tim hadn't been particularly antagonistic since Nublar. So maybe he really had changed and not just temporarily. She hoped so. Tim could be annoying from time to time. And, well, to be honest, he'd meant it more often than not. And she'd just as often bounced it right back at him. But as far as she was concerned, it had always been what was termed a “proportional response.” In any event, she really did want to be able to get along with her brother. The trouble was, he was a boy and she just didn't understand boys. Maybe that would change someday. She just wished someday would hurry up.

“Great!” said Jill. “Go out and get your things and I'll show y'all to the guest room.”

When Mom and Tim had filed out the door, Jill turned to Robert. “Rob, would you go get the kids and tell 'em what's up? And have Hannah help get the Murphys situated up there. Make sure George has all those gates secured. And don't spend too much time with the dinosaurs. Don't want anyone bein' suspicious.”

Robert raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. An exchanged look meant something Alexis didn't know how to translate. Maybe that was just as well. It was probably grown-up stuff she was better off not knowing.

A couple of hours later, they'd been fed and Alexis lay under a sheet and a thin blanket atop a hide-a-bed. Mom slept on a normal bed and Tim on the floor. She stared up at the darkness, listening to Mom's and Tim's breathing, trying not to let the thoughts in her head distract her too much. But, of course, the more she thought about that, the less successful she was. Eventually, she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Alexis woke up screaming yet again. She sat there for several moments, waiting to catch her breath. Then she flopped onto her back and groaned.

“Lex! Lex!” It was Mom.

“Mom,” said Alexis, her eyes still closed, “please don't call me that. It's Alexis. You gave me a perfectly good, feminine name. Please use it.” She wasn't sure she managed to keep the edge out of her voice.

Mom exhaled. “Sorry...Alexis. I'm...worried about you.”

“Me, too. That's why we're here, remember?”

“Of course.” Mom reached out and stroked Alexis' hair. She opened her eyes. Mom looked like she was trying to smile. “I'll be okay,” she said, hopefully reassuringly.

Tim loomed over Mom's shoulder, but Alexis ignored him. Her stomach growled.

“Yeah,” said Tim. “Me, too.”

Alexis sat up again and slid out from beneath the bedclothes, glad she'd worn shorts and tee-shirt to bed.

A knock sounded at the door. “Y'all okay?” It was Jill. “I heard screaming.”

Alexis beat her mom to the door. “I'm fine. Thanks,” she said.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Alexis wasn't sure. Not really.

“Okay,” said Jill. She didn't sound convinced. Thankfully, she didn't push it. “Breakfast's about ready. We do have a couple of rules here, though. First, what we serve is what you eat. Second, if you dish it onto your plate, you finish it. No exceptions. Got that?”

“Sure,” said Mom from behind Alexis.

Jill smiled. “See y'all in a few.” She turned and retreated down the hall.

Minutes later, Alexis, Tim, and Mom stepped into the dining area. The scent of velociraptor lingered, but there'd still been no other signs of any of the dinosaurs she knew Thelen had taken from Isla Nublar. It was nearly overpowered by the cacophony of breakfast smells: eggs; whole-wheat toast; coffee; some sort of sausage; oats.

She chose an available chair next to Hannah. Mom sat next to her and Tim next to Mom.

A round of “good mornings” ensued that felt like it took a whole five minutes just by itself.

“Sleep okay?” Hannah asked.

Alexis looked at her, then decided she was trying to be friendly. “Uh...sort of.”

“Oh. That hide-a-bed has the bar, doesn't it? Sorry about that. I should have put some egg foam down.”

“No, it's not that. It's me. It's...complicated.” That was an understatement.

“Okay.” Hannah sounded uncertain. “Did Mom give you the rundown on stuff?”

“You mean the breakfast thing?”

“For starters.”

“A little. Said we eat what's on the table and that we clean off our plates. And she'll go over everything else while we eat.”

Hannah shrugged.

“She seems nice. Your mom, I mean.”

“Yeah, she's pretty cool. Lots of kids don't get along with their parents.”

Alexis snorted. “Lots of parents don't get along with themselves.”

“Huh?”

“Uh...ask me later.”

Jill walked in, Milly and George in tow, and the three of them set several serving bowls onto the table. Alexis could smell it before she could see it. Eggs, sausage, oats, biscuits, and gravy. A second trip brought sliced whole-wheat toast, strawberries, cherries, a jug of milk, and another jug of orange juice. Then a pot of coffee. Not that Alexis usually ate the typical country breakfast, at least not that she could remember.

She glanced over at Mom and Tim. Mom looked like she was trying to keep from rolling her eyes while Tim was practicing drooling. Her brother had always resisted the vegetarian diet that Mom had spent the last several years pushing and he seldom wasted an opportunity to deviate from it.

Alexis wondered if she'd be able to maintain her own. She'd heard that living on a farm, even short-term, meant a lot of hard work and hard work meant eating lots of stuff like bacon and gravy. Ick. How was it she had an aggressive carnivorous dinosaur inside her, but still had a hard time eating meat? That was one of a growing pile of questions she had about the whole thing.

Tim reached out for one of the bowl.

“Wait!” said Milly. Tim froze. “We gotta say grace first,” Milly declared.

After a pause, Tim withdrew his hands. Alexis had forgotten about that. While her family was nominally Presbyterian, they didn't practice it much. Like so many other people, they were what some termed “submarine Christians,” which generally meant they “surfaced” for Christmas and Easter, but rarely went to church the rest of the time, and were hit-and-miss about daily routines like reading the Bible and praying over food.

Alexis mentally added that to the pile of questions. What religion was she supposed to be? Would her dinosaur self want her to follow Ard-Khar-Ll'ia? Or did she really have to choose at all? Did it really matter one way or the other? There was the Blood-Memory and while she was still at a total loss to explain that, it was obviously real and just as obviously didn't fit anywhere in Christian doctrine as far as she knew. But she was only twelve, for crying out loud! Surely she had some time to figure it out and work through stuff. She just wished she could hurry it up a little.

* * *

Alexis stood in the drive and waved one last time as Mom and Tim disappeared back down the road heading home. She sighed.

“Hey,” said Jill from behind her. “You okay?”

Alexis nodded. “I think so. It's just...I was just thinking that Mom and Tim are going home and that it feels strange that this is going to be home for me for a while. I've never done anything like this. Not for more than a week or two for summer camp.”

“If it helps, you can think of this as a sort of extended summer camp.”

Alexis chuckled ruefully. “But without all the arts and crafts.”

“Says who? We went over the rules. Once chores are done, you get to goof off the rest of the day.”

“Yeah, with a dinosaur running around inside my skull.”

“About that. You may want to trudge around back. Get to know the place. And its, shall we say, new residents?”

Alexis grunted.

“But I guess you already know they're here,” Jill added.

“I can smell them,” said Alexis. She turned around and strolled around one end of the house, Jill right behind her.

“Well,” said Jill pensively, “they do have a peculiar sort of smell. Most animals tend to be that way. But...wait a minute. You can smell them from way out here?”

“Uh...yeah. Why?”

“I didn't think it was that strong.”

Alexis shrugged. “I don't know what to tell you. Except that I can smell it.”

Jill regarded her quizzically. “What else can you smell?”

Alexis snorted. “Everything.”

“As in...?” she prompted.

“As in, everything,” Alexis repeated. “Like all the horses, cows, chickens, dogs, cats, mice, my period.”

“You can smell that?”

“Can't you?”

Jill shook her head slowly. “The animals, sure. Not all at once. And certainly not my period.”

Alexis whimpered.

“What is it?”

“What's happening to me?”

“Um...I don't know how to answer that.” She put an arm around Alexis. “But that's why you're here, right? To get answers? So...why don't we go talk to my husband and...” Jill's pause was conspicuous. “...his dinosaur.”

“Sholtha,” said Alexis. “Her name's Sholtha.”

Jill sighed. “Yeah, I know. It's...weird. I'm kind of having a hard time with Rob sleeping with a dinosaur.”

Alexis made a face. “You don't mean...”

Jill nodded.

“He said that?”

“Well, that's one of the things about being married. No secrets.”

“That's...” Alexis realized she had no idea how to feel about what she was pretty sure Jill was saying. As a human, she supposed the appropriate response would have been, “yuck.” As a Khantushaka? She had no idea. So she said so. “...I have no idea.”

Jill chuckled. “Me neither.”

“She's my sister, you know,” said Alexis at length. “I mean, my dinosaur self's sister. If that's even how it works.”

“Yeah, Rob mentioned that. I have no idea how it works either. Ah, here we are.” Jill stopped in front of a wooden pole barn. The door stood about an arm's width ajar. Jill made a gesture toward it.

Alexis looked at Jill, then at the door. The scent of velociraptor was strong. She stepped inside, Jill right behind her.

It took her eyes several moments to adjust to the lower light. “Sholtha? Thelen?”

“Asthriki,” said Sholtha.

“Come on in,” said Thelen.

“Shall I leave you three to your devices?” Jill asked. “I trust you can't get into much trouble so long as she's in here, too? Or is that something else I don't want to know?”

“We're monogamous,” said Thelen.

“Uh-huh,” said Jill dubiously.

“Well, we are,” said Alexis.

Jill cocked her head in the dimness.

“What? I remember stuff. Or, I'm starting to. Yeah, I know I wake up screaming about it every morning, but still.”

“Well,” said Jill, “I have chores to do. And you all do, too. So keep it brief. You can get back to your...dino-pow-wow or whatever after lunch.”

“Yes, dear,” said Thelen.

Jill turned and walked back out of the barn.

“Don't mind her,” said Thelen. “She's kind of taking this a bit hard.”

“So she said.”

“Oh? What'd she say?”

“That it's weird and she's having a hard time with you sleeping with a dinosaur.”

Thelen chuckled. “She's not wrong.” He gestured to a three-legged stool. “Care for a seat?”

Alexis shrugged, grabbed the stool, then sat down between Sholtha and Thelen, but so that she could see both of them at once.

“So,” said Thelen, “what seems to be the trouble?”

“Ha, ha,” said Alexis flatly.

“No, really.”

“You mean besides what you already know?”

“Besides that, yes?”

“Where do I start?”

“At the beginning. The first time you went to sleep and woke up screaming, what is it you remember from that?”

Alexis took a deep breath, then let it back out again. She shared that first memory-dream she'd had. It felt weird at first. But the more she talked about it, the more relaxed she felt. Soon, it was as though that attack on that hapless maiasaur had been some Sunday outing she might have taken over Spring Break.

“Interesting,” said Thelen. “Sounds like fun.”

“Oh, it was!” Alexis gushed. She blinked. “Whoa,” she said. “That was...weird.”

“Alexis?” came Hannah's voice.

Alexis groaned. “Chores,” she said, as though it explained everything. Which it probably did.

Sholtha made a dismissive gesture. “Yes,” she said, “go do your ghork.”

Alexis rose to her feet. “Yes, Ard-Righa,” she said, then turned and strode out into the sunlight and early summer heat. It was going to be a very strange summer.

* * *

Alexis watched Jill slip the rope bridle off an old mare and shut the gate. She watched the decrepit horse hobble into the center of the paddock, its head drooping. It gazed back at Jill half-blindly, its large, milky-brown eyes pleading with her.

Alexis had mixed feelings about it all. On the one hand, it nearly broke her heart doing such a thing to the poor animal. On the other, it quickened her blood. To make matters worse, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel.

Jill turned to her husband. “Are you sure this is necessary? Because I'm sure as hell not convinced it's remotely a good idea.”

Thelen exhaled slightly. “Love, you know as well as I do how violent nature can be.”

“But I feel like I'm enabling it.”

“That's because you are. Besides, you don't really expect four natural hunters to let someone else kill their food for them, do you?”

Jill exhaled. “Yeah, you said that. But let me remind you that I promised the Johnsons a quick death. They wanted a painless one, too, but I had to beat around the bush on that part. Still don't sit well with me.”

Rob shrugged. “Ever see a predator take down prey? And I don't mean on the Discovery Channel.”

“Duh. Cats and birds. Hawks and mice. Bears and fish.”

“Lions and gazelles? Cougars and deer?”

She shook her head. “Been here all my life an' there are still some things I ain't seen.”

“Well, I have. Trust me, this will be a lot like it.”

Jill lowered her voice and leaned closer to Rob. “Are you sure the children should be seeing this?”

“They've seen livestock butchering, haven't they?”

“Of course. And helped a few times. What about Alexis?”

“What about her?”

Alexis caught a brief glance from Mrs. Muldoon.

“You sure she can handle this?” Jill asked. She was still a bit concerned about the girl's mental state, which still seemed a bit erratic.

“She's like me, remember? Trust me, she'll be fine.”

Jill sighed, and leaned on a fence rail. “I hope you're right. Because if I regret this, you'll never hear the end of it.”

The three hatchlings, none of them any larger than a chicken, scurried under the fence. Sholtha bounded effortlessly over it. Jill flinched slightly.

Sholtha landed on the ground, her feet sending twin puffs of dust into the air late June air. She said something to the hatchlings. Alexis didn't know quite how to translate, but she was pretty sure it was somewhere between an instruction and, “Here, hold my beer and watch this!”

Sholtha bent down slightly, her stiff tail wagging back and forth very slightly. The horse whinnied nervously. The hatchlings took up position around the animal, one on either side and one behind, each about a dozen of their own paces away from the animal.

Without warning, Sholtha sprang off the ground. All four of her limbs thrust out in front of her, jaws wide, a high-pitched, grating screech rising from her throat. Alexis grimaced.

She noticed Hannah practically twitch as Sholtha struck. One hind leg landed on the horse's shoulder. She pivoted slightly, planting the other on the horse's back. It let out a hideous scream, filled with pain and terror. The poor mare's legs buckled under the impact. Sholtha grabbed the horse with both clawed hands, then closed her jaws around the animal's neck, the impact driving it to the ground. It lay still, even as the hatchlings leaped and began to eat.

Jill's mouth hung open. “Oh...my...God,” she said quietly.

“And that, love,” said Rob, “is what predators do.”

“Whoa,” said George. “Look at all the blood!”

“Euw,” said Milly.

Hannah squeaked in dismay while Alexis gasped. Jill leaned over to Thelen. “And you say you and Alexis have one of those inside of you?”

“That's right, yes,” he said casually.

“How can you be so calm about that?”

“It's that or have a breakdown. Which is what would have happened to Asthriki had she not come out here.” He tended to use Alexis' velociraptor name, something she'd found to be far less confusing than she might have expected. “And you still talk about it as though we're possessed by demons or alien parasites or something.”

“I'm trying. It's just...weird.”

Thelen chuckled. “Tell me about it.”

“You're not going to...” She finished the question with a gesture.

He flinched. “No, no. Even steak tartar's a bit too far for me. I may have a Khantushakal soul, but I still have a human stomach.”

“For these small things we're grateful,” Jill said with a roll of the eyes. She looked past Rob. “Lex?” she asked.

“Alexis,” replied Alexis.

“Are you...?” Jill gestured.

She made a face. “Yuck! I'm a...a veggie-saurus, remember?”

“Yeah. My bad.”

Everyone just stared while the four velociraptors ate. The hatchlings finished first, which didn't surprise her. Minutes later, Sholtha stood up and turned around. Her mouth was covered in blood. Her grey-pink tongue lolled out of her mouth, licking whatever blood it could reach. Jill shook her head in dismay as Sholtha walked casually back to the fence and exchanged a kiss with Rob.

“That is so gross, Dad,” Hannah declared.

Rob shrugged. He looked at Jill.

“Oh, no,” she said. “Don't you even...” Rob cut her off with a kiss.

“Right,” he said when he'd let Jill up for breath. “Let's get to it.” He ducked under the fence, trotted over to the dead horse, and pulled a knife. His family and Alexis followed.

Jill wiped her mouth. “Rob, I swear to God I'm going to hurt you.”

Rob just looked over his shoulder and winked. He didn't seem to be taking her seriously. Maybe it was his way of trying to jar her mind into accepting what had happened to him.

As far as the horse was concerned, Alexis had to admit carving up the animal for later made a certain amount of sense. What else were they going to do with a partially-eaten horse? Sure, they'd feed parts of it to the compies and struthies. Then they'd grind up the bones and feed that to the compies and struthies, too.

But there was still plenty of edible meat on its body. The idea of eating horse meat had horrified her at first. But she was slowly getting over it. It helped that there was plenty of precedent for it in other countries. Besides, otherwise the whole thing would just rot and nobody would have wanted that.

* * *

Alexis knelt on the floor of one of the metal pole barns. She'd helped convert it from an open, multi-purpose space to its current configuration with several dozen sturdy pens.

In some respects, “helped” was probably somewhat generous. In reality, she'd held things, carried other things, and followed instructions while Thelen did most of the heavy work. They had occasional help from George and Hannah and even more occasional help from Jill on those days when she could spare the time away from her usual veterinary duties or when Thelen succeeded in convincing her that it was in her best interest to help build pens for dinosaurs.

They still had a lot of work to do. For the moment, each ten by ten pen held one dinosaur. The posts were two-inch schedule-forty steel tubes set into sleeves that were in turn set into concrete sunk four feet deep at ten-foot intervals. Each post was eight feet long, with two-inch steel tube cross-members. That left room for expansion. Eventually, the entire barn would house a single animal once each had grown to full size, which Thelen projected would take at least five years.

Thelen still had to adequately address ventilation during summer and heating during winter. The former was not likely to be a problem until the following summer, since the animals were nearly all still hatchlings. Heating was giving him a headache and he kept muttering about wanting to do it “low-tech.” Alexis didn't know nearly enough about that to be of much help.

She felt the straw dig into her bare knees, left exposed by her overall shorts. Her attention fixated on a two-month-old Parasaurolophus. She gently stroked its snout, feeling the slightly rough skin that reminded her a lot of leather furniture, but both warm and cool at the same time and pushing back with its own internal pressure. The animal made a purring sound.

“I think she likes you,” said Thelen.

Alexis looked up and beamed. “You think so?” she gushed. Just then, the animal nudged her hand in a curiously feline manner. She went back to stroking the animal. After a moment, “How do you do it? Deal with having a dinosaur inside you, I mean.”

Thelen rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “It's really not that different from not being a dinosaur.”

Alexis shot him a look. “Yeah, right,” she said, still stroking the dinosaur. Not that different from not being a dinosaur? Seriously? “I wake up every morning in a cold sweat, screaming sometimes. I never did that before. And you don't. Why?”

“Lots of reasons. First, I'm old enough to be your father. Which means I've been around a lot. I've seen and done things that would curdle the blood of most people. Second, I adapt. Third, I've always had a Khantushakal soul. I just didn't know it. But it was always a part of me, making me into the person I am. Fourth, I was fully grown before I found out. So it doesn't really bother me.

“Sure, having to sort out the other life's memories has been rather disorienting at times. Especially first thing in the morning. Really, the hardest part has been finding the balance between loving Jill and loving Sholtha.”

Alexis considered the words for several moments. “I'm still scared,” she said.

“You're afraid your Khantushakal self is going to take over, consuming you from the inside out until there's nothing of Alexis Murphy left, is that it?”

“Well...yeah,” she said. She thought that was perfectly obvious.

“Didn't happen to me.”

Alexis stared at him.

“You're still you. You'll always be you. Doesn't matter what you're called. You've always had a Khantushakal soul. The only difference is that now you know about it. It would have influenced the person you're becoming whether you're aware of it or not. The truth of the matter is that you're both Alexis and Asthriki. Always have been, always will be. You're both human and Khantushaka. I know that's a little confusing and you know what?” He leaned closer to her. “It confuses me, too. Being two seemingly exclusive things at once doesn't fit well in our Western worldview. Doesn't mean it isn't so.”

He leaned back and looked at his arm. “Doesn't mean you're not in for a wild ride, though.”

“What if I don't _want_ to be in for a wild ride? I never asked to be a dinosaur!”

Robert exhaled. “Unfortunately, what we want is often irrelevant. The sooner you learn that, the better. Life's like that, no matter what you are. And like I said, you've always been a dinosaur. Besides, who ever asks to be born into their circumstances?” He chuckled. “Well, unless you're Donald Trump.”

Alexis laughed.

“See? You're improving already.”

The laugher subsided after a few more moments. “But how do you do it? Adapt? Not wake up sweating and screaming?”

“I'm afraid I'm not quite sure.” Alexis frowned, but Robert continued. “What is it that disturbs you so much?”

“Besides the memories about dinosaurs?”

Robert nodded.

“Isn't that enough?”

“Those are your memories. Just as are the ones about what you did last week. You know what I think? I think your memories are showing you things that challenge your upbringing and your mind is having to reconcile the two. But it will eventually. Tell me, when was the last time you woke up screaming?”

“Last week.”

“And before that?”

“Um...three days?”

“What about when you first returned home from Isla Nublar?”

Alexis snorted. “Every time. Sleep, nap, whatever.”

“Sounds to me like your mind is sorting things out on its own.”

“I don't know. I'm remembering things...a _lot_ of things. Stuff that would get people like Alan, Ellie, and my brother drooling way more than they were in Isla Nublar. Why do you think I keep waking up in a sweat? All these memories are coming at me fast... _real_ fast! It's like...trying to watch a movie on fast-forward.”

“You'll adapt.” He stepped over to the gate, opened it, and gestured.

“I'd better,” Alexis glowered.

The young Parasaurolophus sneezed. Alexis felt something damp, slightly warm, and curiously, disturbingly, familiar, splatter onto her skin. She held up a newly-wet hand and groaned. “Euw. Again?” She glared at the dinosaur. “Are you guys gonna make me collect the whole set or something?”

Robert chuckled.

Alexis looked up at him. “It's not funny.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Have you ever had a Brachiosaurus sneeze all over you?”

“Can't say I have.”

“Do you know how much...snot...one of those things has?”

“Can't say I do.”

“Well, it's a lot. And it's really gross. And if I'm gonna have every one of these dinosaurs sneeze on me, I want a couple of shop rags and a bottle of Purel.”

Robert chuckled. “You're on a farm, Alexis. It's like that, even with normal things like horses and cows.”

Alexis rolled her eyes. “Terrific,” she said sarcastically, wiping the offending, snotty hand on her overalls.

“You're strong, Alexis...Asthriki,” said Robert as he walked toward the main door, Alexis at his side. “The next few years are going to be...rough, I think. Or so Jill says. Hannah hit puberty last year, so I at least like to think I know a thing or two about it. From the outside, anyway.”

“And what if I sprout feathers...or something?”

Robert chuckled.

“It's not funny!”

“No, no, of course not. You're a beautiful girl, Alexis. And you'll grow more beautiful still. And between you and me, a few feathers will only make you prettier.”

Alexis snorted. “Now you're just trying to butter me up.”

“Nonsense. Why would I do that?”

“To make me feel better?”

“Is it working?”

Alexis giggled.

“I'll take that as a yes. But really, I think you'd look quite smashing with feathers.”

She rolled her eyes.

* * *

Alexis Murphy held the two female younglings, one under each arm, their heads shoved into her armpits. Next to Alexis, Milly held the male youngling. All three of them quivered even more violently than did Sholtha.

A few feet away, Robert Muldoon knelt next to Sholtha, his arms wrapped around her neck and his body leaning over hers. She held her snout shoved into the remaining space between his body and her own. She quivered.

Another boom shook the barn. All four raptors growled. Alexis flinched. She knew there was a reason she'd always hated fireworks. Why she didn't have much of an aversion to firearms she didn't know, but she'd also suspected there'd been a reason she'd preferred the bow to the rifle. Independence Day explosives had always annoyed her. The behavior of her fellow Khantushaki shed a little light on that.

Maybe they reminded the five of them of the loud banging sounds when the Flood waters had slammed into the Ark—or, for those outside, against their bodies. Or perhaps all the strange rumblings that had shaken the ground for many months before the Fountains of the Great Deep had burst forth. Or maybe the hydrologic eruptions breaking through compressed crust or the vulcanism that followed. All she knew was that as a velociraptor, her world had been a lot noisier from the moment she'd seen Sholtha and Thelen set foot on the Ark up until the waters had killed her. Maybe her reincarnated soul remembered that and her aversion to fireworks had been a subconscious manifestation of those previously locked up memories. But why none of them seemed terribly put out about thunderstorms, she didn't know.

For hours, she, Thelen, and Milly held the velociraptors as the July Fourth festivities continued. Some of the other dinosaurs periodically moaned and grunted, followed by soothing words from George, Hannah, and Jill to those animals.

Each year, various groups and radio shows issued warnings to the effect that people should keep their pets indoors on Independence Day. And each year, someone's dog or cat would go bonkers and get run over, knock up a neighbor's animal, or disappear completely. But somehow, even with dog howling and cat yowling and the horses and cattle nearly stampeding, it all seemed to pale in comparison to the violence with which the dinosaurs had been reacting.

After a while, the explosions tapered off and everything went quiet. By then, it was halfway to dawn. Alexis figured there might have been an hour, possibly two, before the eastern sky was to begin lightening. By the time they'd finished calming the animals, the velociraptors, and themselves, it was nearly daybreak.

“Hannah,” said Thelen, “make a note. Dig a bunker before New Year.”

Hannah groaned. “I'm gonna sleep for a week,” she moaned.

“Maybe,” said Alexis, “I can get Grandpa to send an excavating team?”

Robert chuckled. “I can ask him,” he said hopefully.

But given what she'd heard about InGen's impending financial troubles in the aftermath of the Isla Nublar incident, she wasn't terribly optimistic. But one thing was for sure, they'd need a back-hoe long-term, one way or another.

“On second thought,” he said, “maybe it would be easier...and cheaper...to truck everyone up into the mountains for a couple of days.”

Jill groaned. The children cheered. Sholtha growled indignantly. But clearly, going through another night like that was out of the question. And what would they do when all the dinosaurs reached full size? Would Alexis even be there each summer to help?

Despite the fact that Thelen had selected mainly smaller kinds, a few of the others would grow to be enormous, triceratops and parasaurolophus particularly. Alexis had heard stories about how violent a bison stampede could be, but she was sure such a thing paled in comparison to even a dozen terrified triceratops charging through the middle of Pinedale. She wondered if the Blood-memory would share things like that with her.

“Can we go to bed now?” asked George.

Milly looked like she was about to literally fall asleep on her feet.

“Yeh,” said Thelen. “I think that's the best idea I've heard all week.”

* * *

“See?” said Alexis. “Nothing to it!”

All eyes turned toward her.

“What do you mean, nothing to it?” Hannah asked.

Alexis wiped sweat and dust from her brow. Though she was pretty sure she'd only succeeded in smearing the dirt from one part of her face to another. “It was fun.”

“It was work.”

“But we got to break stuff!”

“Yeah,” said George, rubbing his head, “including ourselves.”

Alexis shrugged. “You weren't paying attention. You need to develop better situational awareness.”

Hannah snorted. “Situational awareness? That's easy for you to say, dinosaur girl.”

Alexis held her hands up. “Not my fault.”

“She has a point, though,” said Thelen. “You should still have been watching for Sholtha's tail, just like you watch for people swinging boards around.”

“I still think it's funny that she used her head,” said George.

“Well,” said Alexis pensively, “she does have a hard one.”

Sholtha snorted indignantly.

“Oh, come on, sis,” Alexis laughed, nudging Sholtha with an elbow, “we just tease you because we love you. But, yeah, human humor and all that. Still, you gotta admit, it's not all that different from Khantushakal humor, is it?”

“Well,” said Jill as she and Milly stepped into the room carrying drinks, “I'm still not letting you out of all the clean-up.”

“By sun-down, as promised,” said Thelen, taking a ginger-ale.

“I'm still quoting you on that.” She glanced at the wall where sheets covered all the furniture, including the grandfather clock that had been passed down from some granduncle or other. “And the clock's ticking.”

“Yes, ma'am,” said Alexis. That elicited a smile from Jill.

Five minutes later, Alexis returned the glasses to the kitchen. She sighed. Break was over and it was time for the decidedly less-fun part of the whole operation, which involved simply hauling all the broken boards and bits of drywall out the back door and into one of three piles.

One was for things that could be cut up for the coming winter's firewood. The second was for the drywall that would be ground up for the veggies. The third was for things like wiring that would be hauled off either to the recycling or the dump.

After that, they'd have to sweep the floor, though gently enough not to kick up any more dust than necessary. And then they'd have to wipe everything else down after pulling all the sheets off for laundering.

There was talk of everyone sleeping on the back deck that night. Alexis kind of liked the idea. Which was a bit strange, since she'd never really been that into the outdoors. That was another thing that was odd.

She had it on good authority that pubescent girls tended to develop an aversion to the dirt and grime and grit and bugs and so on that came with the outdoors. Yet she found herself drawn toward all that. How much was because she'd been living on a ranch for a couple of months and spending most of her time outside, and how much was because she was progressively getting in touch with her dinosaur self? She had no idea. Maybe it didn't matter.

She bent over, grabbed a board from the edge of the pile, and began to drag.

* * *

Alexis exhaled heavily. “I really don't think this is a good idea,” she said for the...fourth time? She hadn't bothered to count.

“Do it anyway,” George grumbled, more to Sholtha than to Alexis.

Alexis looked away as the dinosaur sank a claw into the boy's wrist. He grunted. “Didn't hurt,” he muttered. Why did boys always have to prove stuff like that?

Several moments later, Sholtha said, “No.”

“ _What_?!” George blurted.

Alexis looked up. She knew exactly what that meant. Her own brother had gone through that immediately before she herself had.

“You are not,” said Sholtha.

“No fair!” George clamped a hand over his bleeding wrist and glared at the dinosaur.

“I told you,” said Alexis.

“My turn,” said Hannah, thrusting her own arm in front of Sholtha.

“Hannah, please don't,” said Alexis. “Trust me, it sucks.”

“Yeah, you said that.” But Hannah didn't budge.

Sholtha repeated the process with the same results.

Hannah snorted. Alexis figured she'd wanted to one-up her younger brother. Not that she blamed her. Boys needed that sort of thing to keep the chips off their shoulders...more or less.

“Now me!” said Milly, stalking up to Sholtha.

“Milly, no,” said Alexis. She turned to Sholtha. “Ard-Righa, she's too young. This could be...will be, if she's one of us...very traumatic for her. At least wait a few years...please.”

Sholtha held Alexis' gaze for a few moments, then grabbed Milly's wrist and proceeded anyway. She made a pensive thrumming sound. Alexis knew exactly what that meant, too.

“Ard-Righa, she's not ready. Not yet. Put this part off for a while...please!”

Sholtha dug a claw into her own wrist, then pressed it against Milly's. Alexis winced. She knew what was about to happen. Sure enough, several moments later, Milly stiffened, then let out a shrill scream.

Sholtha let go and the girl staggered backward. Alexis caught her as she collapsed, sobbing and holding her wrist. Alexis glared at Sholtha. “See? I warned you and you didn't believe me!” she snapped.

“Do not talk to ne like that!”

Alexis' eyes narrowed. “You may be Ard-Righa, and that may give you ultimate authority, but we have rules about that, rules and ways and traditions that keep things in balance. Every good ruler listens to good advice from experts. And in this case, the expert happens to be me. History is full of kings and chiefs and presidents and stuff who didn't listen and then proceeded to make a mess of things. This is one of them.”

“Hunani history, Asthriki.”

“It doesn't matter! If I remembered more of our own history, I'd have more examples of it happening to us, too. And it happens that I have a few. We're not all that different from humans and you know it. You're supposed to be the new matriarch of our kind. Be better than this!”

Sholtha snorted. Alexis snorted back. George grumbled under his breath. Hannah exhaled heavily. Milly cried softly.

“So who is she?” Alexis asked after a long, pregnant silence.

“Alithie,” said Sholtha.

Alexis grunted acknowledgement. Alithie was Asthriki's cousin, older by a few years. At least, that was what she'd gathered from the bits and pieces of her memory.

Gravel crunched in the drive outside, a truck engine approaching and then dying. Then footsteps approached the door, human voices drifting through the walls. The door opened.

“Race ya!” said Jill from the foyer. The woman rushed through, Thelen on her heels. She skidded to a halt, took in the scene, then screamed. Thelen almost collided with her.

“Oh, alsklinga,” he said, “was that really necessary?”

“Yes,” Sholtha replied.

“You didn't pressure them, did you?”

“It was my idea,” said George.

“That's okay, son.”

“No it's not,” said George. He looked on the verge of tears. “I wanted to be a dinosaur! It's not fair!”

Thelen stepped over to Alexis and knelt down. “What's wrong, Milly, dear?” he asked.

“I...I...I'm a vlosraptr!” she wailed.

Thelen blinked. He glanced at Sholtha and raised an eyebrow. Sholtha nodded.

“So...who are you, Milly?”

Milly stared.

“She's my cousin Alithie,” said Alexis.

“You are?” said Thelen to Milly.

Jill groaned behind him. “You have got to be shitting me,” she said.

“The Dlood-Nenory does not lie,” said Sholtha, “ezther.” That much was true.

Thelen looked back over his shoulder. “She has a point, love.”

“This is getting weirder all the time,” Jill moaned.

Thelen ran a hand through his hair and exhaled heavily. “Hannah, you and George take Milly into the washroom, clean and bandage those wounds. Asth...Alexis...would you and Jill go to the kitchen and dish up some ice cream for the others, please? And Sholtha...you and I need to talk.”

Hannah and George stood stiffly to their feet and gently pried Milly from Alexis' arms. The girl whimpered a little.

“Milly?” said Alexis. “It'll be okay.” Eventually, she added to herself.

Alexis followed Jill to the kitchen, consciously tuning out the discussion Thelen and Sholtha had already begun in the other room. She pulled six bowls out of a cupboard and as many spoons from a drawer. A heavy _THUMP_ on the counter behind her almost startled her.

Jill stood with her hands braced heavily on the counter, staring off at nothing in particular. Alexis set the bowls and spoons beside the two tubs of ice cream that had been responsible for the thump.

“Jill? You okay?”

“What's gonna happen to my daughter?” Jill asked. She moved to meet Alexis' own gaze, her eyes slightly moist with tears she was fighting back.

“Probably what's been happening with me all summer,” said Alexis. “It hasn't been that bad. Has it?”

Jill shook her head. “No, you've been fine...I think. But she's so young!” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “Why'd you let it happen? You were supposed to be watching them. My kids, I mean.”

“I tried.”

“Did you?”

Alexis sighed. “Yeah. I protested. A lot. But George insisted and Sholtha wouldn't listen. What was I supposed to do? I'm the same age as Hannah and Sholtha's Ard-Righa. I don't have the authority.”

“The authority?”

“And look at me. I'm a twelve-year-old girl! I can't overpower your three children _and_ a fully-grown velociraptor. If I had...well, it would have been even worse.”

“Worse? Worse than my baby girl being a dinosaur?” A pause. “I didn't mean it like that.”

“I get the whole 'having trouble with the dinosaur thing' stuff, believe me. I'm not thrilled about it either. And I have to deal with that on top of puberty. Ugh! Milly might not be ready for it, but at least she should be through adapting to being a dinosaur before she has to deal with _that_! I guess this makes me a pioneer. Yeah, it's all really weird. And...I'm sorry. I don't know if there was any more I could have done. If nothing else, I should be the one to be on 'responding to Milly waking up screaming' detail.”

Jill held her gaze for a few moments. “You know, that sounded very grown-up. You're taking it better than I am and I appreciate that.”

* * *

Alexis sat in the Muldoon living room, enjoying a cool drink and the last bit of cool indoors she was likely to have for a few days. A knock sounded at the door. She nearly dropped her drink. “I'll get it!” She bounced up and trotted to the foyer.

Her mom stood there, sweating in the late summer heat.

“Mom!” Alexis threw her arms around her mother and basked in the return hug, ignoring how hot and sweaty the older woman felt.

“Hi, sweetie! You look like you're doing better.”

Alexis nodded vigorously. “Yeah. Much. Hey...you wanna come in for a minute? Jill wants to touch bases with you.”

“Oh. Okay, sure.” Mom followed her inside and Alexis nudged the door closed with a bare foot.

She led her mother toward the kitchen.

“Darielle!” said Jill, looking up from assembling a pile of lunch meat wraps. “It's great to see you!” She wiped her hands on her apron, then shook Mom's hand.

“Likewise,” said Mom. “Wow! I love what you've done with the place.”

Jill chuckled. “Oh, the...remodel? It...sort of came up. A spur of the moment thing.”

Alexis fought back a snicker.

“So, did my daughter behave herself?”

“Oh, she's been an absolute joy. And a great help to everyone. She's family now. Please consider sending her back next summer.”

Alexis smiled.

“I will. Thanks.” A pause. “Where's everyone else?”

“Out working.”

“We've all said our good-byes anyway,” said Alexis.

“Well,” said Mom, “then...I guess we should go. Again, Jill, thanks for everything. And thank Robert for me, too, would you?”

“Of course.”

Back at the couch, Alexis looked down at her things. “Uh...Mom, would you give me a hand?”

“Wow, Lex...Alexis. What's all this?”

Her luggage had basically doubled. “Well,” she said, then pointed to each bundle while rattling it all off. It was mostly the product of some of the things she'd learned to do to stay busy between farm work.

There was a large bag of washed, unspun wool, a roll of calf-skin leather, all hand-dyed in purple. Another bag held new clothes, also in shades of purple.

Several pads of art paper held drawings she'd done in the evenings and some of the nights when she'd been unable to sleep, or when she'd been up in the middle of the night with Milly. A set of colored pencils were rubber-banded together beside a box of pastels and a small bag of charcoal.

Atop it all sat a recurve horn bow and four dozen purple-fletched arrows, six with target tips, roughly half with broad hunting heads, a quarter with bodkin points, and the rest with obsidian heads. Next to it sat a large Bowie knife in a purple-dyed cowhide sheath.

“And what's this?” Mom asked, fingering the velociraptor claw hanging about Alexis' neck.

“Oh, that,” said Alexis. “It's...a souvenir from Nublar. Sort of a trophy, I guess.”

“Is that legal?”

Alexis shrugged. “You tell me. You're on the Board, right?”

Mom considered that for a moment. “Technically, it's InGen property. At least, I'm pretty sure that's how Legal would see it.”

“Do they have to know?”

“Well...”

“Please?”

“I suppose we could consider it part of the non-disclosure agreement. That tooth...officially doesn't exist anyway. Especially after they...” She trailed off.

“Napalmed the island?” Alexis finished. “Yeah, I know about that. Grandpa and Th...Robert were talking about it before we left. So...don't ask don't tell, right?”

Mom smiled. “That'll work. Shall we?” She motioned toward the door.

Alexis nodded. “Let's go home.” She gave Jill one last hug, then carried her stuff out.


	4. Chapter 4

“So, how was your summer?” Stacey Hollister bobbed up and down energetically in a not altogether unbirdlike manner.

Alexis almost didn't recognize her best friend, despite having grown up together. Stacey had painted her face in nearly every color of the rainbow, done her hair up in an apparent attempt to defy gravity, and had practically bathed in some not-quite-natural perfume. If not for the school uniform, the girl would probably also have made a valiant effort at dressing like Madonna. Alexis suppressed a shudder at the thought.

“It was...interesting,” Alexis said. Actually, interesting didn't even begin to cover it.

Stacey giggled. “Interesting? Oh, Lex, you're hilarious.”

Alexis sighed. “Stacey, could you do me a huge favor?”

“Sure. What?”

“Call me Alexis, okay?”

“Um...okay,” said Stacey uncertainly. “Do I want to know why?”

“I...outgrew Lex over the summer.” She paused. “I'm...officially a woman...I guess.”

“Huh?”

Alexis nearly groaned. Stacey was intelligent, but she seemed to have more than her fair share of synaptic misfires. She leaned in toward Stacey's ear and lowered her voice to a near whisper. “I started my period.”

Stacey's eyes widened. “You started your...”

Alexis clamped a hand over her friend's mouth. “Not out loud,” she said quietly.

Stacey licked Alexis' palm. “And stop that,” said Alexis. She made no move to withdraw her hand. “That sort of thing is on a need-to-know basis,” she continued, “and no one else needs to know. It's annoying enough as it is.” She removed her hand from Stacey's mouth and peered at it. “And your lipstick is...waxy,” she added.

“It's supposed to be like that,” said Stacey. She pulled a compact from her purse, flipped it open, and examined her face. “Hrmph. You smeared it!”

“I did not.”

Stacey pulled out a tube of lip gloss and touched up her lips. “Well...it's not _too_ bad, I guess.”

Alexis shook her head slowly. “How do you stand having that stuff all over your face? It feels disgusting, it smells, and...and _what_ did you bathe in anyway?”

“Huh?”

“That...perfume.”

“It's Chanel Number Five and I only put a dab behind each ear...like you're _supposed_ to.”

“Well, you should dilute it.”

Stacey peered at Alexis. “Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my best friend?”

“What? I've always been like this.”

“Well, yeah. You've always been kind of tom-boy-ish, but I've never seen you so, I don't know, aggressive about it.”

Alexis shrugged. “Sorry. I spent all summer around cows, horses, chickens, and whatnot.”

“Whatnot?”

“I'm expanding my vocabulary.” That was an understatement. She'd picked up some farm terms and some of Jill's country slang. That was on top of an entire language still unspooling itself in her head.

“Uh-huh. And farm animals don't smell?”

“Oh, they do. Just...it's natural.”

“Now _there's_ the Lex I've come to know and love,” Stacey laughed. “Great tan, by the way!”

“Oh, thanks.”

“I'm jealous.”

“Don't be. Wyoming was a lot of work. Good, honest, fresh-air type of work, but really hard!”

“But I thought you said you were going to some park or something in Costa Rica.”

“Uh...I did.”

“So, what was it, a petting zoo?”

Alexis winced. “I'm not allowed to talk about it.”

“You're not? Why?”

“I'm not allowed to talk about why I'm not allowed to talk about it.” She paused. “Look, some stuff happened and they made me sign a Nondisclosure Agreement. Besides, you really don't want to know.”

“Oh, now I do.”

Alexis shook her head. “No. No, you don't. You think you do, but if you did, you'd wish you didn't.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

“Just trust me, okay?”

Stacey sighed. “Fine,” she said resignedly. “Come on, we're going to be late to Home-Room.”

Home-Room turned out to be more than a little different than it had been the previous academic year. First of all, the room itself seemed to trap and magnify every odor known to middle-school-kind. Alexis counted a dozen different perfumes, after-shaves, and deodorants, plus several more that merged together into an olfactory morass. None of it did much to mask the body odors, which Alexis didn't find off-putting at all. On top of that, three women were having their periods. Those were just the people smells! She didn't want to think about taking the lid off of a bottle of glue or the cap off a Sharpie.

To distract herself, she focused on the sounds of her classmates' voices as their names were called, committing each one to memory as best as she could.

“Alexis Murphy,” Mrs. Fallon said at last.

“Here,” Alexis replied, relieved she didn't have to correct “Lex.” She still expected to be doing that all week to everyone who knew her.

She made a concerted effort to focus as various papers made their way around the room in the tried-and-true “take one and pass the rest on” manner. Class supplies lists, schedules, rules, and the syllabus pages for three of her classes that she'd be taking from Mrs. Fallon were among them. Sheesh! She was going to need a separate folder just for that! It was like filling out some forms just to apply for permission to fill out an even larger stack of forms.

Mrs. Fallon distributed textbooks differently. The class queued up to retrieve their own from a long table at the back of the room. A separate form for each book had been among the pages passed around the room and Alexis had to fill out each one, attesting to the condition of her book, and signing in acknowledgement to the effect that if she abused her copy during the year, she'd be fined for it. At least _that_ was basic, unlike that darned Nondisclosure Agreement she'd signed after Nublar. Still, humans really did seem to be fond of paperwork. She suppressed a groan. Her identity issues were going to be a pain in her backside.

* * *

Alexis had to practically drag Stacey to the gym.

“I see you spent your summer honing your grumbling skills,” said Alexis.

“I hate gym class,” said Stacey.

Alexis chuckled.

“What? You hate it, too.”

“Let's just say that this farmer's tan of mine isn't the only effect Wyoming had on me.” She pulled the door open. “After you.”

“You're enjoying this too much.”

Alexis shrugged and followed her friend.

“And I suppose,” said Stacey over her shoulder, “that this place smells, too.”

“Yeah. But at least it smells like sweat.”

“Wyoming turned you weird, too.”

Alexis stiffed a giggle. Stacey had absolutely no idea, and Alexis was all too happy to keep it that way. She almost skidded to a stop outside the locker room. The wave of odors pouring forth nearly knocked her off her feet. She took three long steps to the nearest garbage can, braced a hand against the wall and grunted, willing her mid-morning snack to stay down.

“Lex? Are you okay?”

“Oh, geez,” Alexis groaned.

“Um...”

“Ladies?” Alexis recognized the voice of Coach Bergerson from the mercifully brief attempt at intramural basketball to which she'd been subjected the previous summer. “Is there a problem?”

Alexis swallowed hard. “Got any...Tums...or something?” She looked up at Bergerson's concerned look. “Sorry. I don't remember locker room smells being nearly so...tangible.”

“Do you need to go see the nurse?”

It was tempting. “No, I'll be okay. I just...wasn't expecting that.”

“Okay, but be careful. A sensitive stomach could be a symptom of a variety of things.”

“Yeah. Got that.” A variety of things? Great. All she needed was an ulcer...or cancer. She certainly wasn't pregnant. She just wished she knew why her sense of smell had suddenly become so keen. She supposed it might come in handy at some point, but for now it was highly annoying.

A few minutes later, Alexis jogged out of the locker room. She'd almost managed to hold her breath the whole time she was changing. It was going to be a long year.

* * *

Alexis had never been so glad to be home. No, actually, that wasn't true. But it felt like it at the moment. She wasted little time kicking off her black leather loafers in the foyer, dropping her backpack at the foot of the stairs, then flopping onto the living room couch. She groaned. The first day of school had always been the first day of school and eighth grade was, all things considered, not terribly different from seventh grade. Or at least, it shouldn't have been. But she felt overwhelmed.

“You okay?” Tim asked.

“Yes. No. Maybe. I think the jury's still out. How about you?”

“Fine.” She could almost hear a shrug in her brother's voice.

“You didn't squeal, did you?”

Tim snorted. “Me? Squeal? Come on, sis, you know me.”

Alexis chuckled ruefully. “That's why I asked.”

“You only bugged me about it all last week.”

She exhaled. “It's just that it's a big deal. I mean, Grandpa bringing back dinosaurs...okay, his scientists bringing back dinosaurs...and those dinosaurs killing people is one thing.”

“Yeah, yeah, but you being a dinosaur is something else and you're trying to stay out of the funny farm. You've only said that, like forty times.”

“I did not.”

“Seems like it.”

“Okay, fine, I apologize for badgering you about it.”

“Sure. No sweat.”

Tim dropped his own bag beside Alexis' and loosened his tie. “I'm going to change,” he announced.

“Seth,” she replied.

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

Tim shrugged and retreated upstairs, his bag in tow. Alexis lay there, staring up at the ceiling, its stained timbers becoming a canopy of tree ferns in her mind's eye. She could almost see the fronds waving in a warm breeze.

She sat up as Tim descended again. “I'll make you a deal,” she said.

“Uh...okay. What sort of deal?”

“I think you and I need each other. Before you protest, just let me finish. I need someone to talk to about all this dinosaur stuff. Mom would be suspicious if I started, uh, pen-palling with the Muldoons. So you're the only other person who knows anything at all about what I'm going through. And I need you to keep it a secret between us. In exchange, I'll teach you the Khantushakal language. And when I remember enough about combat, I'll teach you that, too.”

Tim's eyes widened. “Really?”

Alexis nodded. “'Seth' means...acknowledged...okay...ten-four...that sort of thing.”

“Whoa.”

Alexis smiled. Her stomach chose that moment to grumble. “I guess we'd better check the menu.” She got up and padded to the kitchen, Tim right behind her. They peered at the menu.

“Tofu _again_?” said Tim.

Alexis groaned. “We have _got_ to get Mom to let us have some meat.”

“Wh...what?”

“You heard me. How am I going to maintain the muscle I spent all summer building if all I have is tofu?”

“You're...actually suggesting that?”

She shrugged. “I _am_ a meat-a-saurus, you know.”

“You just took all the fun out of that.”

“It's true.”

“I'm confused. I thought you said you have a dinosaur running around inside your head.”

“That's what it feels like most of the time. Imagine that you're you, raised here by Mom and all that. Then some guys from England show up and tell you that you're the Prince. So now that you know you're the next King of England, are you really any less you than you were before that?”

“No...yes...maybe?”

Alexis shook her head. “No. You're not. You're still the same you, it's just that you're now aware of a part of yourself you never knew existed. It's like that with me. I am Alexis Murphy. But I am also Asthriki, Ard-Ellr'alna. I am human...and Khantushaka.”

“How can you be both at the same time?

“I'm still working on that. I have four, maybe five years of highly fragmented memories. So I'm still piecing together who I am. And yes, it's confusing...and still really...surreal.”

The front door opened. “Kids?”

Alexis dropped her voice. “It's Mom. Remember, none of this me being a dinosaur stuff ever happened, okay? It's highly classified, if that makes you feel any better.”

Tim nodded.

“Hi, Mom!” Alexis called.

She heard the soft clatter of Mom's high-heels falling onto the foyer tile. Mom strode elegantly around the corner and deposited her purse and keys onto a table. “So,” she said, “how was your first day of school?”

“Okay,” said Tim.

“What he said,” said Alexis.

Mom walked into the kitchen. “Just okay?”

Alexis and Tim both shrugged. “Nothing really exciting,” said Alexis. A little strange, sure. Exciting, not so much.

“Homework?”

Tim shook his head. “Not yet,” said Alexis. “But we do have to let you read our syllabi and have you sign a paper saying you did it.”

Mom nodded. “How about we do that after dinner?”

“Sure.” A pause. “Want some help?”

“That's very good of you to offer, thank-you.”

Alexis hauled her backpack upstairs and tossed it onto her desk chair. She was thankful her homework had been more or less nonexistent so far. That wasn't going to last, of course. She changed into a wraparound skirt and a baggy T-shirt with sprigs of lavender printed on it and went back downstairs.

“So, Mom,” said Alexis, “would it be too much to ask for something other than tofu?” She gestured at the menu.

“What's wrong with tofu?” Mom asked.

“Besides that it's tofu?” said Tim.

“We eat it all the time.”

“Yeah, and I'm tired of it.”

“He has a point, Mom,” said Alexis, placing a saucepan of water on the stove. “We could have a little more variety if we put a little flesh on the menu.”

Mom raised an eyebrow. “A little flesh on the menu? That's an interesting way of putting it.”

“I'm just saying.” She pulled a partially-used packaged of whole-grain spaghetti out of the cupboard. “Besides, we're both growing. Do you know how hard it is to get enough good protein on a vegetarian diet?”

“That's why we eat dairy.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Tim muttered.

“I think you're just jealous that I got to eat things like bacon and sausage in Wyoming.”

“Well...yeah.”

“ _Got_ to eat?” said Mom.

“By the way, Mom,” said Alexis, “why _are_ we vegetarian?”

Mom looked at her quizzically. “We've discussed it. Many times, actually.”

“Yeah, I know. It's just that...after spending the summer on a farm, all those reasons you always told us seem so...silly.”

“I'm a little surprised to hear you say that,” said Mom. She unwrapped a block of tofu. “Especially after almost being eaten by dinosaurs.” Alexis could swear she saw her mom shudder.

“Technically,” said Tim, “it was _one_ dinosaur that tried to eat us.”

“Twice,” Alexis added.

Mom started chopping, which to Alexis seemed to be lacking a certain something when it came to tofu. “It doesn't really matter how many there were or how many times it happened,” said Mom without looking up. “Something carnivorous tried to eat you.”

“But they're supposed to be carnivorous,” said Tim.

“That's not the point.” There was a certain strain in Mom's voice. “It's that it tried to eat _you_.”

“I think what Tim's trying to say,” said Alexis, “is that he and I share a different perspective on carnivory.”

“But it scares me!”

Alexis chuckled. “It scared us, too. Especially when Tim got electrocuted.”

“I...I don't want to think about it.”

“I don't blame you.”

“Hey,” said Tim, “it wasn't much fun for me, either.”

Alexis smiled at her brother. Despite the lingering friction between them, they'd grown closer through all that hardship. “I believe you.” She turned back to Mom. “But what does any of that have to do with the reasons you've been making us eat vegetarian? All we're saying is that having more than just milk, cheese, and the occasional egg would be really good for us. Besides, we have an ocean right there.” She gestured toward the bay. “We could have fresh seafood every day, couldn't we?”

Mom blinked. “I suppose we could, sure.”

“So you'll do it?” said Tim cheerily.

“Not so fast,” said Mom, “I just said we could. I'll give you an official maybe while I think about it.”

“Are you still bothered that eating meat kills things?” Alexis asked.

“Yeah,” said Tim, “because most prey is still alive when its predator starts to eat it.”

“Humans have evolved past all that,” said Mom.

Alexis snorted. “My feathery backside,” she muttered.

“Excuse me?”

Alexis winced. “Sorry. I meant to say...no, not really. Not even close, actually.”

“Would you care to explain that?”

“Just watch the news. Every sort of violence you can imagine, people do it to each other every day. None of them has evolved past anything. You haven't changed a bit since the day you first appeared on Earth. You're still aggressive killers. Always have been, always will be.”

She pulled a skillet off its hook beside the stove, set it on a burner, and plopped a dab of coconut oil into it while it heated.

“So there's no good reason why this family has to be vegetarian. I think Dad rubbed off on you, you had what you think was an attack of conscience, and the two of you made an executive decision.”

“I'm your mother. It's my right to make executive decisions.”

“That's not in dispute. It's just that you made the wrong one. And we should reconsider.” Alexis displayed a curled bicep and pointed at it. “Go ahead, Mom. Squeeze it.”

Mom did, and raised an eyebrow.

“Do you think I can maintain that, let alone improve it, on a vegetarian diet? Not likely. I'm a growing woman. I...and Tim...need as much good lean protein as we can eat. And tofu just won't cut it.”

Mom considered that for several moments. “I'll make you two a deal,” she said at length. “Research what you've just told me. Put a presentation together. Nutrition, sources, the works. I want to see the numbers. If you make your case well enough, then I'll agree to some menu changes. But they'll have to be humane ones. Okay?”

Alexis and Tim both nodded vigorously.

“Do we have a deadline?” Alexis asked.  
Mom shrugged. “That all depends on you and how motivated you both are.” She plopped the tofu into the skillet, then opened a can of organic tomato sauce.

Alexis cubed up two home-grown tomatoes and added them to skillet with the tofu. She chuckled, sliding a generous fist full of pasta to the now-roiling sauce pan. “You have no idea.”

* * *

Alexis watched Stacey paw through yet another rack full of tops. She pulled one out and held it up. “What about this one?”

Alexis peered at it, then shrugged for the...she'd lost count.

Stacey let her arm fall to her side, then returned the garment to its place. “Honestly, Lex...sorry, Alexis...shopping with you used to be fun. I thought you were looking forward to this?”

“I was...I think.”

“Are you sure you're okay?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Because you used to love shopping. And look at you. You're still wearing all your old clothes. Didn't you buy anything new for the year?”

“Uh...if you mean for school, we wear a uniform.”

Stacey shot Alexis a look. “I meant for the rest of the time?”

“What's wrong with what I'm wearing?”

Stacey looked Alexis up and down, from the white T-shirt printed with sprigs of lavender, to the light purple linen skirt, to her purple ballet flats. “You mean that besides that none of it's new and it's all purple?”

“What's wrong with that? And you know purple's my favorite color.”

“Yeah, I can see that.”

Alexis smiled. “Good thing it's one of the school colors.”

Stacey groaned. “What are we going to do with you?”

Alexis shrugged. “Beats me.”

“Oh, hey!” Stacey took off across the store.

Alexis followed her. Now what? Sometimes, Alexis could have sworn her friend had been born with some sort of fashion radar.

After several twists and turns around several obstacles that most people called clothing racks, Stacey skidded to a stop amid the jewelry. She pulled a pair of earrings off of a display and held them up to Alexis' ears. “Well?” she said.

“Well what?”

“About the earrings? What do you think?”

“I can't see them.”

Stacey exhaled heavily. She grabbed Alexis by her arms, spun her around to face a nearby mirror, and again held the earrings up to Alexis' ears. They were hook earrings, each a single feather out of some iridescent metal.

Alexis blinked. “Well...they're pretty...I guess.”

Stacey groaned. “You guess? I thought you were looking forward to having your ears pierced.”

“I was. Now? I don't know.”

“You don't know? You're hopeless.”

“Why? Just because I want to earn my scars?”

Stacey stared at Alexis. “Earn your scars? Did you get sunstroke in Wyoming? Pick up some weird disease in Costa Rica?”

“I...don't know what to say to that.”

Stacey put the earrings back, half-glaring at Alexis.

“Look, Stace, I'm not trying to be a...witch. Some stuff happened to me in Costa Rica, stuff I'm still trying to figure out.”

Stacey's eyes widened. “Alexis!” She sounded horrified. She leaned closer. “Were you, you know...” Her voice dropped to a barely-audible whisper. “...raped?”

Alexis looked sharply at her friend. What was she supposed to say? That it was nothing like that? Because in a way, it was. At the moment of her Awakening, she'd felt violated. And why not? A dinosaur had forced some of its own blood into Alexis' veins and for a time, she'd been terrified that some unknown Thing had been set loose inside her body, an Other that was going to slowly consume her until there was nothing left of Alexis Murphy, leaving a dinosaur to drive her body around for the next eighty years.

“Um...no,” she said slowly. “Besides, anyone who tries will live to regret it.”

Stacey visibly relax. “Oh. That's a relief. Then what...?”

“I'm not ready to talk about it,” Alexis interrupted.

“When...”

“When I am, I'll let you know, okay? Please don't push me, because that's not going to get me there any sooner. So let's just take care of your purchases and go eat. All this shopping is working up an appetite.”

“But you haven't been shopping.”

“Well...a little. But I _have_ been carrying all your stuff. And watching you shop was almost making me tired. Seriously, they should make that an Olympic sport.”

Stacey laughed. “Lex...Alexis...you're hilarious.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

“So,” said Mom, “how was the shopping?”

“Fine, I guess.”

“What did you buy?”

“Nothing.” She paused. “Well, lunch.”

Mom raised an eyebrow.

“There was some debate about that. We settled on Native Foods Cafe.”

Mom shrugged. She dug into her purse and pulled out a very small bundle not much bigger than her own hand. “Your birthday's in a few days. I know we've been talking about this for a while and I thought maybe we'd do something about it a bit early.”

Alexis accepted the package tentatively. She was pretty sure she knew what it was. She was right. Inside was a pair of rather nice stud earrings set with purple stones, probably amethyst.

She knew she was supposed to be excited about that. Having her ears pierced was going to be a sort of rite of passage. But for some reason, she'd completely lost interest. She suspected it had something to do with her dinosaur self.

“Mom? Can I...sleep on this?”

“I guess. Is something wrong? You were really excited about this last year.”

“I know. I think it...I don't know. Somehow, the idea of intentionally putting holes in my body feels...unnatural. Sorry.”

Mom put a hand on her shoulder and nodded. “Sure. Just let me know, okay?”

Alexis smiled.


	5. Chapter 5

“Wait, you what?” said Stacey.

“I said no,” said Alexis.

“I...don't understand.”

“Putting unearned holes in my body just so I can hang decorations from it seems...irreverent.”

“Irreverent?”

“Yeah. A desecration.”

“A desecration of what?”

Alexis peered at her friend. “A desecration of my body, of course. And irreverent toward...” She almost mentioned Ard-Khar-llia. “...the Creator.”

Stacey blinked several times. “Are you sure you didn't pick up a tropical disease in Costa Rica?”

Alexis laughed. “Positive.”

“As in, you tested positive for one?”

Alexis tipped her head. “Ha, ha. Very funny.”

“So you won't wear earrings, but you have no trouble hanging a lizard claw around your neck.”

“Dinosaur claw,” Alexis corrected.

“Fine. Dinosaur claw. The point is, what are we going to do with you?”

Alexis smiled. “I'll let you know when I figure it out.”

Stacey shook her head slowly. “Okay, then,” she said uncertainly.

Together, they walked around the hall corner and almost directly into several members of the football team. Alexis recognized a couple of them from the week before, though they hadn't been formally introduced. She looked up at them.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” she said.

“Oo, gentlemen,” said Dirk Tanner. His tone did not sound terribly polite. “Hear that, guys?” he continued. The other four of them chuckled.

“What would you prefer?” Alexis asked.

“How about 'sugar-daddy?'” said Dirk.

Alexis raised an eyebrow. She had some idea of what that meant. “Um...I don't think so.”

“Oh, but why not, honey?”

“Honey?” Alexis groaned. What passed for the conversation was going nowhere as far as she was concerned. She stepped sideways.

Dirk moved to intercept. “Hey, you're cute. How about...”

“Not interested,” Alexis half-growled. She moved again.

Again, Dirk intercepted. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I'm not finished.”

“Yes, you are. And you're going to remove your hand.”

“Oh, am I?” He tightened his grip.

Alexis scowled. “One way or another,” she said. She moved, but the hand held her.

“Alexis, what are you...” Stacey didn't finish her sentence.

Alexis spun, planted the heel of her hand on Dirk's chest, and shoved. Dirk flew across the hall and slammed into a set of lockers.

All talk and motion in the corridor ground to an abrupt halt. All eyes turned toward Alexis. Only the gentle hissing of the HVAC cut the silence.

Alexis blinked. She didn't think she'd shoved nearly that hard. Something was wrong. She clutched her backpack and sprinted out the nearest door. She took the steps outside two at a time. She stopped beside one of the rough wooden pylons that supported a trio of pull-up bars and leaned on it. She stood there, staring at her hand, slowly clenching and unclenching it as though it were a new bionic implant she was still learning to use.

At length, she smelled perfume behind her, a floral scent. “Gardenia?” she asked without turning around.

“I beg your pardon?” Alexis recognized the voice of the Vice Principal.

“Your perfume. It's gardenia.”

“How did you know?”

“We have some on our porch. Missus Anderson,” she added.

“That was...interesting, what you did in there.”

“That's one way of putting it.”

“Are you alright?” asked Anderson.

“I think so, yes.” Alexis turned around. “And now, I suppose you're required to impose some sort of disciplinary action upon me.”

Anderson nodded. “You know that sort of thing is not permitted.”

“He tasked me.”

“Oh, I believe you. Between you and me, I'm pretty sure at least half the student body has wanted to do something like that to Mister Tanner for years.” She smiled slightly. “For that matter, I suspect a few of the faculty wish corporal punishment were still a thing.”

Alexis chuckled.

“But I still have to make a show of escorting you back inside. And I also have to see you in my office after last period.”

Alexis seated her backpack a little more firmly on her shoulder and started walking back toward the building.

“Oh, don't worry,” said Anderson, “I don't think anyone is going to bother you for the rest of the day.”

Mrs. Anderson was right. Not only did no one bother Alexis, everyone gave her a wide berth. In fact, most conversations abruptly died whenever she approached. Even her noisiest classes were subdued. She could just about count on one hand the number of people who would even say hello the rest of the day.

Not that she minded. She wasn't particularly interested in trying to explain how she had shoved the quarterback of the football team halfway across the hall without much effort.

She met Tim outside the front office at the end of the day. “Tim? Will you let Mom know I have to see the Vice Principal? I don't think it'll take long.”

“Does it have something to do with that Dirk guy?”

“Does everyone know about that?”

Tim snorted. “I think we all heard about it within fifteen minutes. News kinda travels fast around here, ya know?”

Alexis grimaced. “Yeah, no kidding. Anyway, if Mom has any questions, I'll be in there.” She cocked her thumb at the office.

“Sure,” said Tim. “You're gonna be in trouble, you're gonna be in trouble,” he added in a sing-songy voice.

Alexis batted her eyelashes at him. “Oh, I'm already in trouble.” She mussed his hair, ignoring his protestation, then ducked into the office.

“I believe Missus Anderson is expecting me,” she said to the receptionist.

“Miss Murphy, I presume?”

Alexis nodded.

“Go right in.”

Alexis did. Mrs. Anderson's office was, well, about like she'd expected. A large wooden desk sat in front of an equally large window. A bookcase nearly full of books, binders, pamphlets, and other assorted publications Alexis had no desire to peruse occupied much of one wall. A potted spider plant hung from a hook mounted in the ceiling. Another potted orchid sat on the desk and a large potted plant with floppy, strap-shaped leaves sat on the floor beside the door. A few photos of the coast and watercolor paintings of wildflowers hung tastefully on the walls.

“Ah, Miss Murphy,” said Mrs. Anderson. “Please, sit down.” She gestured toward a chair opposite her own desk.

Alexis set her backpack carefully on the floor beside the chair and sat down just as carefully.

Mrs. Anderson steepled her fingers. “I'm obligated to remind you that we don't condone violence at this school.”

“Uh-huh,” said Alexis dubiously. She was quite sure no one at school had any idea what real violence was.

“Furthermore,” Anderson continued, “we have rules about that. They're printed in the student handbook, which you were supposed to have read. So does the State of California.”

“Of course they do.” Alexis didn't quite manage to keep the eye-rolling out of her voice.

“There are certain things I am required to do in response to school violence.”

Alexis half-stifled a snicker.

“You find that amusing?”

“You find what I did to Dirk violence?” Alexis retorted.

“By definition, yes.”

“Then your definition is highly distorted.”

Anderson raised an eyebrow, then let her hands fall slowly to her desk. “Be that as it may, this school's charter is quite specific on just what I'm required to treat as violence. Whether or not I agree with it personally is another matter and beyond the scope of this meeting. Therefore, I am required to enter this incident into your permanent academic record. You may or may not care about that right now, but college admissions departments do.

“I am also required to recommend a psychologist. You are, however, under no obligation to pursue counseling at this point.

“For a first offense, suspension is at my discretion, depending on the circumstances and the nature of the incident. Given what happened, and that I personally witnessed it, I'm not suspending you. But you should consider this an official warning. Next time, I may not be so lenient.

“And in case you're wondering, Mister Tanner has been issued a one-day suspension. He did start it and he did make an un-asked-for physical advance toward you. We take that very seriously.”

“You feel my response was...disproportional?”

Anderson nodded. “We aim to teach our students to handle their problems without resorting to physical force.”

Alexis felt her eyes narrow. Her dinosaur worldview was already turning out to be very troublesome. “Is that why this school has football and wrestling? To help...um...diffuse aggression?”

“That's an interesting way of looking at it.” She lifted a piece of paper off her desk and handed it to Alexis. “This requires the signature of your parent or guardian. Hand it to the front office tomorrow.”

Alexis stood up and accepted the paper without comment.

“I've noticed, Miss Murphy, that you're accepting all this without much resistance.”

Alexis shrugged. “Consequences.”

Anderson nodded. “That's very mature of you. I want to encourage you to pursue more creative ways of confronting your interpersonal problems. I must also remind you that what the school regards as violence is not permitted on school grounds. I might also point out that the sidewalk by the street, the park beyond the football field, and the green-space behind the Four-H building are outside the grounds.” She raised both eyebrows.

Alexis smiled. “So noted,” she said. She showed herself out of the office. It was going to be a very long year.


	6. Chapter 6

Alexis watched her mother's eyebrow creep incrementally toward her neatly-trimmed bangs. With each turn of a page, the eyebrow rose higher until the other one was forced to join it. After a while, Mom flipped the last page and set the several-page report onto the island counter.

“Wow,” she said, “I'm impressed. Really. This is college-level work.” She folded her hands, resting them atop Alexis' and Tim's research paper. “So here's what we'll do. I'll let you start with seafood, according to what you've laid out in your paper.” She reached into her purse, pulled out her wallet, then pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of that and handed it to Alexis without further comment.

Alexis accepted the bill and slipped it into a pocket. She wasted little time retreating to the foyer and pulling on a pair of leather sneakers.

“Don't be long, you two,” Mom called.

“We won't!” Alexis replied.

Once outside, Tim said, “I don't believe she actually folded.”

“Do you really think she did?”

“Uh...what?”

Alexis breathed out her nose. She waited until they'd made a dozen paces down the sidewalk before pausing to present a foot.

“Notice something?” she said.

Tim looked at Alexis' foot and shook his head. “Besides that you're wearing girl shoes?”

Alexis cocked her head and smirked at Tim. “Um, no. Look at your feet.”

Tim did, and shook his head again. “What am I supposed to be looking at?”

“What was Mom wearing on her feet when she came home yesterday?”

“Shoes?”

“More specifically?”

“High heels?”

“And?”

“And what?”

Alexis exhaled heavily and resumed walking. “We all wear leather,” she said decisively.

“So?”

“So, Mom has problems with killing animals for food, yet apparently not for clothing. It's inconsistent.”

“Aren't _you_ inconsistent?”

“Only because I'm still remembering things and sorting it all out. And that's arbitrary anyway.”

“What's arbitrary?”

“Girl shoes and boy shoes.”

“No, I mean, what does arbitrary mean.”

“It means...” She paused while deciding how best to explain it. “...that there's no particular reason for something. Why are the school's colors purple and grey, when they could just as easily have been blue and green? Why are mailboxes blue, when they could have been...orange? Do girls like pink because we...well, most of us...naturally gravitate toward pink, or because we're raised being told we should like pink just because we're girls? We do something a particular way just because that's the way we do it. They're traditions, more or less.”

“Okaaay,” said Tim uncertainly. “How are girl shoes and boy shoes arbitrary?”

“Who decides that what you're wearing is what boys should wear and what I'm wearing is what girls should wear?”

“Uh...I have no idea.”

“Exactly. It's arbitrary.” She gestured at Tim's feet. “You see boys and girls wearing Saltwater sandals, but when was the last time you saw a boy much older than twelve wearing them?”

Tim shook his head slowly.

“See? It doesn't really make any sense. It's done that way just because it's done that way. Besides, you should try these.” She briefly wiggled a foot for effect. “Or my Mary-Janes. They're quite comfortable.”

Tim made a face.

Alexis laughed. “Oh, come on,” she teased. “My feet are bigger than yours. They'll fit.”

Tim hrmphed and Alexis giggled again. “Tim, you're funny.”

“Uh, thanks. I think.”

They strolled down the street in the general direction of the local outdoor market. Alexis really wanted to visit a wharf. That was really the place to find the freshest seafood. But the nearest ones required driving. Well, almost. Everywhere was within walking distance if one had enough time.

Ideally, though, she'd catch it herself. That would be even fresher. Unfortunately, that was even less practical for any number of reasons.

“You're grinning again,” said Tim.

Alexis shot him a glance.

“Well, you were.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, well, you know.”

“I do?”

She nodded. “It's...a meat-a-saurus thing, I guess.”

“Sure.”

They rounded another corner and into the Saturday market grounds. Dozens of pop-up day-shades lined the perimeter of a parking lot that served the local library during the rest of the week. The only half-expected melange of smells nearly brought Alexis to a skidding stop.

“Are you okay?” asked Tim.

“Uh...fine,” she said. Her brother really was observant when he wanted to be. “Just...too many smells all at once,” she added.

It took her a couple of minutes to begin to sort them all out. The strongest ones were of popcorn, fry-bread, and a dozen different deodorants and perfumes worn by the nearest people. The smells shifted somewhat as she walked. Before long, she caught the distinct scent of fish and followed her nose to a booth at the opposite corner of the market, passing local breads, a ceramics artist, exotic fruits, and artisan coffee along the way.

She stopped barely two paces inside the shade cast by a pop-up canopy. A sturdy, waterproof banner hanging from it declared the business to be Monterrey Bay Sustainable Seafood. That much boded well. She began to scan the offerings even before the proprietor—a big, sea dog type, complete with beard—greeted her.

Sea bass...crab...clams...tuna...red snapper...ling cod...salmon...shrimp. All were packed in a trough filled with ice. The scent of fresh fish filled her nose, and the market abruptly faded from her consciousness.

In its place sprang up the equally familiar trees, grasses, ferns, and cycads. Far-off bird cries filled her ears, audible above a rushing cataract in front of her. Sunlight glinted off both the water and the granite beneath her feet. A large salmon appeared above the river's froth, only to promptly disappear. Moments later, another took its place. Then another, and another. Occasionally, a large fin scooted over the cataract, the top of a frantically-swishing tail following, a dark grey-green back fleetingly visible above the water.

For moments she didn't bother to count, she watched them, mesmerized both by the water and the salmon swimming through it. She saw in it a beauty that went far beyond the simple need for food and joy that came from pursuing it. Strong, lithe bodies cut the water more easily than her teeth and claws cut flesh. The power and determination they mustered to thus struggle upriver on whatever their purpose was nothing short of inspiring.

She looked across the cataract at her mate Nersthanig, equally intent upon the salmon. She took in every moment, admiring the way the sunlight glinted in shades of bronze, orange, and green off his feathers. She'd known him since they'd been fledglings, and still he took her breath away.

She turned back to the several young ones perched impatiently on a smaller boulder behind her. Two of them, Llanisthe and Gornath, she'd hatched two moons before. They were beautiful, both fledging out nicely in their parents' coloring, the female purple with brown highlights, the male green with purple mottling. She didn't think she could be more pleased with them.

“Now watch carefully, young ones,” she said to them, “and take care not to fall in, for we have not yet taught you to swim.”

“But Mother,” said Llanisthe, “how often do we come near water?”

Alexis...Asthriki...suppressed a sigh. Her daughter was so much like herself, and just as impertinent.

The young one had a point, of course, but one arising out of the inexperience of youth. Their migration route took them across such water a few times a year. This was the first time Llanisthe and Gornath had seen it.

“Often enough, Llanisthe,” she said, allowing just a little bite to her tone. “And that is why you must pay attention.”

With no further comment, Asthriki turned back to the water. Nersthanig still stood watching the fish. “Are you going to watch them all day?” she called over the rushing of the water.

He looked over at her, amber eyes nearly blending into his darker amber snout. “They are so beautiful!”

Asthriki smiled. “So they are, my love.”

She returned her attention to the fish, letting a low chuckle rise from her throat. Nersthanig had always been a little soft on the inside. She appreciated that about him and always had, even when they had been fledglings. Sometimes she thought it interfered with certain things that had to be done.

A fish jumped, but too far away. Then another. And another. She crouched low, tensing muscle and sinew, jaws open. A large salmon leaped from the water right beside her. She lunged, striking downward.

She felt teeth grab, a firm resistance giving way, and teeth sinking into the flesh below. Blood welled up from the wounds, filling her senses with its scent. She leaned back slightly against the weight of her prey, and dragged it away from the water, powerful death throes threatening to dislodge her teeth.

“Miss?” said the proprietor. “Miss, are you okay?”

Alexis blinked, the flash of memory vanishing as quickly as it had begun. “Uh...yeah. I'm fine, thanks.” She paused to let her head clear a little. “I'd like...uh...however much salmon a twenty will buy, please.”

Fifteen minutes later, she and Tim walked off with that, plus a pound of ling cod, a quarter pound of prawns, and six bay clams, all wrapped in ice.

“I can't believe you actually used your allowance for the rest,” said Tim quietly.

Alexis grimaced. “Me neither,” she said, then sighed. Her transition from vegetarian to omnivore had been frighteningly rapid. At least, it felt that way. Then again, most people she knew who'd made dramatic dietary changes had just up and announced that they'd decided to do it. Even then, it was usually after some period of pondering on the matter. All of that notwithstanding, she was quite certain she was the first to do so on account of being a dinosaur.

Another half-hour later, they left the market with a loaf of coarse, seedy bread, a pound of Asian pears, five avocados, a small watermelon, a cluster of table grapes, a bottle of balsamic vinegar, a pint of local, unfiltered honey, and three pounds of turnips.

“What was that anyway?” Tim asked when they were barely a dozen steps from the market's edge. “You looked like you were somewhere else for a few seconds.”

Alexis nodded. “I was.”

“Another memory?”

“Yeah.” She shared it without prompting.

“Whoa,” said Tim. Then he giggled. “You had a mate? And kids? So you had...you know...?”

“You mean sex? Well, yeah. That's kind of how that happens, you know. And no, I haven't remembered those bits yet, so don't ask.”

Tim held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Not gonna!”

“Good. Because that's supposed to be private anyway.” At least, it was for humans. She remembered bits and pieces of the Khantushakal rules regarding sexuality, but it was still far too fragmented for her to make heads or tails of it. Except that it was apparently sometimes private and sometimes not. And that was one detail she was _not_ going to share.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I usually make an effort to have what I've written match what's on the ground. If it appears in my story, I try to make sure that if you the reader go there, you'll see the same stuff, the ravages of time notwithstanding. This time, I invented the farmer's market. I figure there's bound to be at least one of these somewhere in Aptos or one of its neighboring municipalities. I just needed it to be where it was for the same of the story and what I saw both staring at GoogleMaps and a cursory glance from Hwy. 1 when I was passing through a few months ago didn't suggest there might be one where I needed it to be.
> 
> I also invented Monterrey Bay Sustainable Seafood. It's supposed to be the sort of thing we see popping up all over the place today. While I don't recall sustainability being a thing back in 1993, I don't think it's terribly out of place for the Monterrey Bay communities.


	7. Chapter 7

Alexis stood on the back deck, her hands braced on the railing. A late December sea breeze blew off the bay. The chill air pricked at her skin, even through her thin cotton nightgown. The hem flickered against her thighs.

Even in the barest suggestion of the coming day, she could see the white-capped waves as clearly as she could at high noon, ghosting across the bay. It was at such times that she wondered what she might be becoming. More to the point, would she be able to identify it when she did? In the meantime, if she could only manage to restrain herself from bludgeoning someone at school...

The sound of their sliding glass door grinding open derailed her thoughts.

“Oh, there you are,” said Tim, “it's the phone. It's for you.”

She turned around and blinked at her brother. Who would be calling her at dawn on Christmas Day? “Uh...okay,” she said uncertainly. She followed him inside, the air much warmer, but also much stuffier. She marveled that she'd never really noticed that before.

“Aren't you cold out there?” Tim asked.

Alexis shook her head. “Not really.” She retrieved the phone handset from where it lay on the far end of the kitchen counter. “Hello?” she said.

“Merry Christmas!” a chorus of voices flooded the ear-piece. She recognized them at once. A grin spread across her face.

“Merry Christmas to y'all, too!” she said.

“Who is it?” Tim asked quietly.

“The Muldoons,” Alexis mouthed in return.

“We didn't wake you, did we?” Jill asked.

Alexis shook her head. “No, I was already up. Been up for a while, actually.”

“Opening presents?” Hannah asked.

“Uh...no, not really.” She cast a glance across the living room toward their dark Christmas tree and its neglected, still-wrapped gifts. “I'm an early riser. And Mom's not up yet anyway.”

“Speaking of gifts,” said Robert.

“Dino-Mom laid an egg!” George gushed.

Alexis blinked. “Oh. I see.”

“And it hatched,” Hannah added.

Alexis blinked again. “Um...I assume Thelen knows,” she said, using Robert's dinosaur name.

“Well, duh,” said George.

“It's his,” Hannah added.

Alexis felt her mouth drop open.

“Asthriki?” said Sholtha. “Are you still there?”

Alexis recovered with effort. “Uh...yeah. I, um, didn't know that was possible.”

“Neither did we,” said Robert. “And it's a boy, by the way.”

“His name's Draconatus,” said Hannah.

“That was my idea,” added George.

“Wow,” said Alexis. “Really, I mean it. That's amazing.”

“He's kind of cute,” said Jill. “Weird, but cute.”

Alexis felt her mouth curve into a smile. “I can't wait to meet him.”

“Well, maybe you can come out again this summer.”

“That's a smashing idea,” said Robert.

“Yeah,” said George, “there's gonna be lots of dinosauring to do here!”

Alexis laughed. “Oh, hey, is Millie there, too?”

“Of course,” said Jill.

“But she still doesn't talk much,” said Hannah.

“Oh, okay. Just wanted to make sure. Nal-heratha, Alithie,” she added, using Millie's dinosaur name.

“Nal-heratha, Asthriki,” Millie replied.

She spent the next several minutes listening to the Muldoons, the children in particular, gush about their favorite presents—which they'd opened already, Wyoming being a time zone earlier—and about little Draconatus in particular. He did indeed sound adorable...and wonderful and amazing.

Alexis hung up and placed the hand-set back in its cradle on the wall. For a few moments, she just stared out into space.

“You okay?” said Tim.

“Yeah. Uh, Tim? I'm an aunt.”

“Wh...what?”

“Sholtha hatched a male.”

Tim blinked. “Whoa.” He started to laugh.

“It's not funny. And Thelen's his father.”

Tim's laugh abruptly stopped. “You mean...Robert and Sholtha...”

Alexis nodded.

Tim's eyes widened until Alexis was sure they were going to fall out of his head.

“That...that can happen?” he said, his voice nearly cracking.

Alexis shrugged sheepishly. “Apparently. Don't ask me how, though. I've just barely learned about Mendel's peas and the four amino acids in DNA.”

“So...are you gonna tell Mom?”

“Tell me what?”

The siblings looked up to see their mother in her favorite silk robe, the pink one with the lace she'd bought for herself after the divorce, arms crossed and leaning casually against a door frame. They stared at her for several heartbeats.

“There's a new Muldoon baby,” said Alexis.

Mom's eyebrow rose and her mouth curved upward. “I didn't know Jill was pregnant.”

Alexis smiled back. “It was a surprise to me, too.”

That much was certain. She was beginning to see how much of a proverbial iceberg the whole plausibile deniability thing really was. The way things were going, she might even have a future with the CIA or something.

“Well, then be sure to congratulate her next time you talk or write, okay?”

Alexis nodded. “Sure thing.” Dodged it!

“Now, let's open some presents!”

Tim beat Alexis to the tree, while she herself took her time. Truth be told, she'd almost forgotten about Christmas. More specifically, she'd forgotten about the presents and she'd had to be repeatedly nagged by Mom, Tim, and Stacey. She'd passed it off as early teenage flakiness. In reality, it had more to do with her dinosaur world-view interfering again.

Tim wasted little time shaking, rattling, and rolling the packages addressed to him. Never mind that he'd been doing that ever since the first one had been placed there two days after Thanksgiving. In recent years, he'd developed a knack for guessing his gifts based on size, weight, center of mass, and the sounds it made when the contents shifted inside the packaging. With him, it seemed to be more art than science.

After the previous Christmas and then Tim's birthday in March, Alexis had resolved to disguise his presents from her. Then she'd had to go and become a dinosaur and in the ensuing chaos, she'd nearly forgotten.

Mom plugged the tree's light string into a wall socket while Alexis heated water for tea and cocoa, a family tradition. Also as per tradition, Mom sat on one end of the sofa, while Tim and Alexis sat on the floor, the coffee table within easy reach.

They opened stockings first. Then everyone took turns opening a wrapped package. Mom gently tore the tape from hers. Tim carefully conducted one last shake-rattle-roll before savagely ripping the paper.

Alexis...Asthriki...crouched at the edge of a clearing, peering past the edge of a large leaf. By water's edge, two large theropods worked on the carcass of a sauropod. The bigger one bent its massive head down and bit into a flank. It pulled up, a large sheet of hide peeling away from ribs with a sort of sucking, ripping sound.

Alexis jolted back to the present, hoping no one had noticed the brief absence of her attention. She pulled one of the small knives she'd made at the Muldoons' the previous summer and meticulously sliced the tape from each of her own packages.

She glanced at Tim. He scowled back. She grinned. She'd taped every square inch of every seam on the package she'd wrapped for him. She knew he'd tear the paper, but at least he'd have a harder time finding somewhere to grip it. As she'd intended, Tim had not guessed what she'd given him.

When all was said and done, the pile of new gifts was perhaps a bit smaller than the previous year, but still quite impressive.

Both their stockings had yielded pendants—amethyst for Alexis and a shark's tooth for Tim—small LED flashlights, and enough chocolate to choke an ankylosaur.

From Aunt Joanna, a pink sweater, a pair of pink Argyle socks, and a pair of hook earrings shaped like pink roses. Would she ever get the memo that Alexis didn't like pink? She already had more pink than she could handle. Thankfully, she'd grown out of much of it and her mother had passed it on to friends, or had donated it to charity thrift stores. The ear-piercing issue was likely to linger a lot longer, however.

From Uncle Hubert, a set of good-quality colored pencils in quite possibly every shade imaginable, along with three pads of equally high-grade paper.

From Grandpa, a large internal-frame backpack big enough for extended trips. She found it to be a little loose, though she did appreciate the color: light purple with sky-blue accents. A note pinned to a zipper-pull admitted as such, but that she was sure to grow into it.

From Mom, a dozen young-adult novels and a hard-cover book on the High Sierra as experienced by John Muir.

From Dad, a flint-and-steel fire-starter, and a tactical knife with a six-inch, black-anodized blade. 

From her cousins in Berkeley, home-made brownies. Alexis hoped they weren't the special kind.

From her other cousins, a small shard of purple geode with a pewter mermaid glued to it, a chrome mermaid pendant, and a novel about a teenage mermaid just learning about her mer-identity.

When the dust had settled, she found herself staring at a pile of unwrapped gifts on the coffee table: an amber pendant; a book about how to deal with teenage girl stuff; two My Little Ponies; a supposedly travel-sized personal grooming kit; some makeup; two grown-up coloring books; a large box of Crayola crayons; a purple ball cap like the one she'd lost on Isla Nublar; a broad-brimmed floppy hat in a muted sea-foam color; a book on beginning UNIX programming; two movies about girls and their horses; an utterly horrendous Christmas sweater in what Mom stated to be clashing shades of blue and pink; a season pass to San Jose Sharks games; two pair of snowman socks; a toy horse with an impossibly long mane and a conspicuously out-of-scale brush for it; several T-shirts with various plant, animal, and geometric designs in a wide array of colors; four skirts of various lengths, cuts, and colors; a flannel nightgown with white snowflakes on a red field and white lacey ruffle cuffs; a small bottle of surprisingly nice-smelling perfume; a basic watercolor set and a pad of cold-press watercolor paper; a book entitled “Computer Hacking for Dummies;” another book on the topic of navigating the early teenage years; a few charms for the charm bracelet she hadn't worn since the week before Nublar; two CDs of her favorite Celtic music artists; and a rather large box from Dad filled with more types of jerky than she knew even existed. It was a good thing Mom made her and Tim jot things down in a small notebook so they knew whom to thank for what when writing Thank-You notes.

Arm load by arm load, she carted it all upstairs to her room, where she stared at it all some more. She exhaled deeply. Something felt palpably hollow. She supposed it had something to do with her Khantushakal world-view. Her people had never actually made things. That didn't surprise her, considering that velociraptors didn't have opposable thumbs. Even so, there had been few aspects of her former life that would have necessitated that. The upshot, of course, was that the Khantushakal had never valued material possessions and that perspective had begun to war with her upper-class American preoccupation with the same. She had no idea what to do about it.

In the meantime, she supposed that putting it all away might be a good start. It would at least occupy he mind for a short while.

The pile of edibles had already been stacked on the kitchen island awaiting filing in the various places things like cocoa packets, chocolate, jelly beans, and jerky were to go. All the socks went into her dresser sock drawer. T-shirts she folded and slid neatly into her T-shirt drawer. Sweaters and skirts found a few unoccupied hangers in her closet. She slid the books into the slowly-vanishing gaps on her bookshelf. Various knick-knacky things found homes on unoccupied furniture tops. Art supplies she placed on one side of her desk.

She sighed again. She could only hope that things would level out before year's end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At an early age, my brother became a master at guessing his presents. So when I was in high school and college, I started disguising them. I had a lot of fun with that. One year I used a towel and a table knife. Another year, I used a stick and some duct tape.  
> My best friend once taught me that it's bad luck to tear wrapping paper. So I'm always the one who sits there and takes forever to open presents because I slice the tape using my pocket knife. So one year, my brother taped three layers of paper to each other, then taped every last centimeter of every seam. Which, of course, slowed me down, but it was a nice challenge!


	8. Chapter 8

“Thanks, Missuz Johnson!”

“Oh, don't mention it. I'm glad to help.”

Alexis waved as Mrs. Johnson executed a several-point turn in the road, an impressive maneuver in a Plymouth Volare station-wagon, and roared off. Alexis noticed she hadn't even attempted the Muldoons' driveway.

It wasn't even terribly long, as country driveways went, or even steep. Alexis wondered if the woman suspected that strange things were afoot at the Muldoon ranch. She hoped she hadn't given anything away during the trip from the air strip.

It had been a long day. It had begun with a hop from Watsonville to Moffett Federal Airfield and from there to Reno, and then to Jackson, where she then hopped into a small Cessna to Wenz Field in Pinedale. The connections had been tight. She was glad of that for two reasons. First, she'd somehow developed an anxiety about flying that she hadn't had before. Second, it meant she'd arrived at the Muldoons' in mid-afternoon, rather than late at night like she'd feared.

She shouldered the backpack Grandpa had sent her for Christmas and trudged up the drive. Five minutes later, she stood on the front porch that had become so familiar to her the previous summer. She sniffed at the air. She caught the scent of the dinosaurs the Muldoons kept in pole barns out behind the house. She also smelled cats, a dog, Hannah, and Llerith. That was curious. Where was everyone else?

She decided to walk around to the back, following her nose. At first, there was no sign anyone was home, aside from the obvious scents. She had the feeling she was being watched, which was probably true. At least one of the velociraptors always kept an eye out for unexpected visitors. Thankfully, she hadn't heard of many of those. Which didn't mean they didn't happen, but she was pretty sure someone would have said something. Being kept in the loop came with the territory as Ard-Ellr'alna.

Alexis came to a pause a half dozen paces beyond the rear of the house. She scanned the area. “Oh, good grief,” she muttered. “Hannah! Llerith!” she bellowed.

Moments later, Hannah emerged from the horse barn. Her face broke into a smile. “Asthriki!” she squealed. She wasted little time covering the distance between them to give Alexis a firm hug. “Oh, geez,” she said. “I'm really sorry.”

Alexis shrugged. “It's only dirt.” Then she chuckled. “You know, there was a time not long ago when I might not have said that. And if I hadn't Awakened, I'm pretty sure I'd be developing a thing about dirt right about now. Rich city girl, you know?”

Hannah nodded.

“So, am I interrupting anything?”

Hannah shrugged. “Just chores. So, no, not really. Come on, let's go inside. I could use a break anyway.”

Hannah led the way, even though Alexis knew it nearly as well as her own home in Aptos. Alexis shrugged out of her pack and set it down on the flagstones by the fireplace while Hannah poured two tall glasses of lemonade.

“So,” said Hannah once Alexis had joined her at the table, “what's new with you?”

“You've received my mail?”

Hannah nodded. “Mom's been reading them to us all. Dramatically.”

Alexis blinked. “Dramatically?  Es-thin.  ”

“I think she makes it all sound more eventful than it probably was. I mean, I don't know many people who could make going to the market sound like the quest to destroy the One Ring.”

Alexis laughed. “Yeah, your mom's like that, huh? I think maybe she missed her calling.”

Hannah shrugged. “Maybe. But I wish you'd written more.”

“Me, too. But between trying to keep from flunking, trying to keep from getting suspended, and keeping the lid on the whole dinosaur thing, I've kind of been overwhelmed. Okay, more than kind of.

“More dinosaur memories unspool in my mind every day. Sometimes they come as dreams, but sometimes they happen right in the middle of something. I think some of them are triggered by a smell or a sound or something. But others seem more random. I'll just suddenly zone out and be back in time. But as near as anyone else can tell, I'm developing petite-mal epilepsy.

“Some days, I barely keep from hitting people at school, especially when I'm having my period.”

“Annoying isn't it?”

“Yeah.” Alexis paused. “Wait, are you saying you started yours?”

Hannah nodded. “In April.”

“Can you smell yours?”

She shook her head. “Nuh-uh.”

“Have you wanted to kill stuff yet?”

Hannah frowned. “You mean, more than I usually do?”

Alexis chuckled. “Right. You and your warrior queen thing.”

“I come by it honestly.”

Alexis laughed. “Oh, don't we know it! Seriously, though, there are plenty of days I've had to almost physically restrain myself from killing the neighborhood dog with my bare hands.”

“Which one?”

Alexis snorted. “All of them.”

“Geez. Sounds rough.”

“If I don't get a handle on it, I'm going to get arrested. I think I might be finding my balance, though. Oh, and I might have managed to pass Spanish.”

Hannah cocked her head. “Is it that hard?”

Alexis sighed. “It didn't used to be. It's just that with Khantushakal unspooling in my head, it's getting in the way. I'm pretty sure I put some vocabulary on the test.”

Hannah grimaced. “Oops. And it doesn't even sound like Spanish. Now, if you were taking something like German or Russian.”

“I'm doomed.”

“Hey, look at it this way. You're doing important work helping to rebuild an extinct civilization.”

“Yeah, I keep reminding myself about that. But I'm pretty sure saying so would get me shut up in a room with pink, padded walls.”

“Let me guess, it's the pink, right?”

“Ha, ha,” said Alexis flatly. “No, seriously. Do you have any idea how much I want to _not_ be in therapy? It's right up there with not going to jail.”

Hannah grunted. “Gotcha.”

“So, where is everyone else anyway? I smelled Llerith. And you, of course. But no one else.”

“Oh,” said Hannah casually, “Mom's out on a call. George and the baby went with her. Dad's up in the mountains hunting. Everyone else is with him.”

“Even Draconatus?”

Hannah shrugged. “Sure. It's not like he has to nurse or anything like that.”

“So what's he eat, worms?”

“Worms, slugs, eggs. Pretty much anything protein-ish that he doesn't have to chew.”

The table disintegrated in front of her, replaced by a nest. It consisted of a large ring made of alternating layers of excavated earth and collected plant matter. Three hatchlings crouched among the moss and grass lining the nest.

Covered with drab, greenish fluff, they were the most adorable things Asthriki had ever seen. Naturally, she'd seen other hatchlings before. But these were her own, the very first clutch she'd laid.

She glanced down at the large dragonfly carcass held between her fingers. She cracked it open, then scraped out the innards with a claw, carefully guiding a gobbet into each hatchling's mouth. Then she watched her babies munch happily on their meal before finishing off the kill herself.

“Asthriki?” said Hannah.

“What?” The dining area abruptly re-materialized.

“Another memory?”

Alexis nodded. “I was feeding my hatchlings.”

“You grimaced.”

“Oh. Uh...the human part of me thought it was disgusting.”

“Was it?”

“It involved cracking open one of the really big prehistoric dragonflies and feeding the soft, squishy innards to the hatchlings.”

Hannah flinched. “Sorry I asked.”

“Don't worry about it. I'm adapting. Besides, humans are the only animals on the planet who cook their food. Everything else eats it raw. Some of them don't even wait until it's dead.”

Hannah grunted. “Nature sure is violent.”

Alexis grinned. “  Sah.  ”

Hanna frowned, then reached over to pick something up from the table. “Hey, what's this?” she asked.

Alexis looked at it. “Um...a feather? You do have those around here, right? Because, well, it's a farm?”

“Ha, ha.” Hannah peered at the feather. “But not in...” She thrust it toward Alexis. “Does this look purple to you?”

Alexis peered at the feather. It was small, like the little downy feathers on chicks. And it was, indeed, a distinct light lavender shade. She nodded. “Yeah. It does.”

“Well, it didn't come from around here.”

Alexis shrugged. “Maybe I picked it up on the plane.”

“On the plane?”

“Best guess. Down jackets, fashion accessories, you know?”

“Sure.” Hannah didn't sound particularly convinced. Then again, Alexis wasn't sure the other girl had spent much time around the upwardly mobile.

Hannah changed the subject. “Well, gotta get back to the chores. Wanna help?”

Alexis shrugged. “I guess.”

“You don't sound too convinced.”

“It's work.”

“I thought you didn't mind work.”

“I don't. Not once I get going on it, anyway.”

“It'll involve the dinos.” Hannah bumped her eyebrows.

Alexis grinned.

They moved to get up. “Hey, there's another one,” said Hannah.

Alexis felt a pinch near the top of her neck.

“Um...Alexis?” said Hannah slowly. “I think this one was attached.”

“What? What do you mean attached? How could it be attached?”

“No idea. But it was stuck to you.”

Alexis rubbed her neck. “Yeah, I know. It kind of...pinched. A lot like...” She froze, her eyes widening.

“Like what?”

“Like a hair being plucked.” She spun around and nearly sprinted toward the nearest bathroom. She flicked on the light and leaned in toward the mirror.

She poked around in her hair. Nothing. Maybe she was... “Oh...crap,” she said.

“What?”

Alexis pointed to a tiny feather she'd just found. It was indeed attached to her scalp. “I'm...growing...feathers,” she said slowly.

“Oh,” said Hannah flatly.

Alexis whimpered.

“Is that bad?” Hannah asked.

Alexis exhaled heavily. “Well,” she said pensively, “it's not the thing itself that bothers me. I kind of miss my feathers. It's just that...what if _all_ my hair becomes feathers? Then what?”

Hannah shrugged. “Then you'll look like Hawkman from Buck Rogers?”

“Ha, ha. Hannah, do you have any idea how hard it's been trying to cover for this? No one can know about this. No one. Not even Mom. What am I going to do?”

“Um...pluck them?”

Alexis grunted. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh, come on. Girls pluck their monobrows all the time.”

“It's not a monobrow,” Alexis half-growled. “And I'm not your average girl either, remember? It's why I haven't pierced my ears. Or wear makeup.”

“Okay, I think I get the ear-piercing thing. Kind of. I mean, you were a bit vague in your letter, but Dad read between the lines. And Alithie helped a little. But how's plucking feathers like that? They do grow back, right? So it's not permanent.”

“That's kind of the problem. It's a temporary solution at best.”

“You're from California, right? Aren't there a lot of weird people out there?”

Alexis rubbed her jaw pensively. “Well...I suppose if it comes to that, I could play the 'Eccentric Granddaughter of a Billionaire' card.”

“Now you're talking!”

Alexis peered at herself in the mirror. “Dunno how long I can keep that up, though.”

Hannah shrugged. “Long enough, I guess. At least until you figure out what else to do.” She giggled. “Or until you start looking like Hawk Woman.”

“Ha, ha, ha.”

Hannah winked. “Look at it this way. It could help you land a movie career.”

Alexis groaned. “I'm doomed. And what if my skin starts going all scaly?”

“Oh, stop being so dramatic.”

Alexis looked at Hannah via their shared reflection. “We're teenage girls, Hannah. Being dramatic comes with the territory.”

“Yeah, I suppose,” Hannah admitted. “Well, I guess until Mom or Dad get back, you can come with me and be dramatic out in the barn.”

“Very funny.”

Alexis followed Hannah out of the room. She exchanged her Saltwaters for poly clogs before following Hannah out to one of the barns.

She let out a low whistle. “Wow, you guys have been busy,” she said, gesturing to the four metal pole barns that hadn't been there when she'd left at the end of the previous summer.

Where before, there had been two metal barns that she had helped build, as well as the wooden one Jill's grandparents had erected, three additional metal barns occupied space, one on the site of the original homestead's barn that had been little more than a pile of sun-bleached boards just waiting to become a safety hazard.

“Well...yeah, I guess,” said Hannah. “I mean, we needed somewhere to put the dinos, and you know as well as I do...okay, better than I do...that they're gonna need more space. We talked about that, right?”

Alexis chuckled. “Only every other week.” She and Hannah exchanged glances, then burst out laughing and headed for one of the center barns.

Hannah opened a side door and ushered Alexis into the dim space within.

Her eyes adjusted more quickly to the gloom than she might have expected. She knew the space well. She'd helped build it, after all. They walked into the parasaur pen.

When Alexis had last seen the animals, they'd been about the size of a beagle. Now they were a little larger than a Shetland pony. One of them bore an amber hide streaked with vertical olive green bars and covered with a fine, downy coat of something that looked intermediate between fur and feathers. A bright golden star, vaguely reminiscent of the markings on the noses of some horses, stood out on a darker green snout. It bounced over to Alexis and licked her excitedly.

Alexis laughed.

“She remembers you, looks like.”

Alexis petted the small parasaur on the snout. It responded with an array of expressions that might have been drawn from equines, felines, and canines.

“She really likes you, too. Hey, maybe she could be yours.”

Alexis gasped. “Really?!”

“Sure. I mean, we'd have to talk to Mom and Dad. But I don't think they'd mind.”

Alexis looked back at the dinosaur. It looked back at her, wagging its tail in a curiously canine manner. “Then I name you...Sundancer.”

“That's perfect.”

“So, have they started breathing fire yet?”

“Uh..wh-wh-what?!”

“Have they started breathing fire?”

“Breathing _fire?!_ ”

“Yeah. They, um, breathe fire.”

“Uh...”

“I'll take that as a 'no.'”

Hannah just blinked. “You're kidding. Right?”

Alexis shook her head. “No. I'm not.”

The barn brightened up and became a clearing. Asthriki crouched beneath the fronds of a tree fern. At the center of the clearing, a group of parasaurs stood facing three large theropods. The attackers paced back and forth, apparently trying to decide how to get at the young. The parasaur defenders stamped and snorted.

One of the theropods charged. Two of the parasaurs reared back slightly, drew deep breaths, then shoved their heads forward. Twin streams of something liquid squirted from their nostrils. About half a body length in front of them, the two streams mixed, then abruptly caught fire before enveloping the theropod.

The theropod screamed, skidded to a stop, and beat a hasty retreat, smoke streaming from the rapidly diminishing flame charring its body. Its cries faded away into the forest. The remaining two took a few steps back, then seemed to think better of things, and turned to pelt off after their injured companion.

“Dragons?” said Hannah. “They're dragons?”

The barn returned and Alexis blinked. “Uh...”

“Okay, what did you remember this time?”

“A couple of adult parasaurs were defending their young against a few...they looked kind of like tee-rexes, but with stubbier arms. The parasaurs squirted stuff out of their noses and burned one of the predators.”

Hannah just blinked at her.

“Hey, I don't make this stuff up. I'm just saying, parasaurs breathe fire. I don't know how old they have to be before they can do it. Not much older than this, though, judging by their hair-plumage. But it's probably a defense response, so...”

“Don't threaten them?”

“Pretty much.”

Hannah exhaled heavily. “Geez. Who'd have thought dinosaur ranching could be this tricky?”

Both girls laughed. Sundancer made satisfied grunting noises.

“You're going to train, her aren't you?” said Hannah.

Alexis blinked. Somehow, that hadn't occurred to her, although she supposed it should have. “I'd love to!” she said. “But...how do I do that? I mean, I've never trained anything before.”

Hannah nudged her with an elbow. “Well, fortunately, you've come to the right place! I'll teach you.”

Alexis grinned. “Sounds like fun! When do we start?”

“How about right now?”

An hour later, Alexis heard the sound of tires on gravel. “Hey, sounds like someone's home,” she said.

“Good,” said Hannah. “I think I need a bit of a break anyway. These guys are _strong_!”

“Can you imagine trying to do this when they're fully grown?”

Hannah snorted. “Asthriki, I don't think we'd be able to _budge_ them when they're fully grown.”

Alexis laughed. “Isn't that the truth!” She gave Sundancer a few more pats on the neck, then stroked her snout again and kissed her before retreating from the barn. The parasaur let out a few plaintive bleats. “Oh, don't worry, I'll be back,” Alexis promised.

She squinted in the bright sunlight outside while her eyes adjusted. Truck doors slammed, two familiar voices floating on the summer breeze.

“Jill! George! We're back here!” Alexis called. She momentarily rounded the corner of the barn, one of the Muldoons' two white Chevy trucks hunkering in its parking space beneath a sturdy car port canopy.

“Hey!” called Jill. “Welcome back!”

“Hi!” said George.

“How'd it go?” said Alexis. “Hannah said you'd been out on a call.”

“It was a two-fer!” said George.

“Yeah?”

“A mare with a colt in breech position,” said Jill, “and a colicky goat.”

“Goats can be colicky?” said Alexis. “Wait...I thought colic was when babies cry and cry and won't shut up.”

“Well,” said Jill pensively, “that's part of it. It's a little more complicated than that, of course.”

Alexis nodded. “I guess so. As far as I can recall so far, we never had to deal with that.”

“Yeah, none of the others have said anything about it yet either. But they all seem to be a bit behind the curve, compared to you.”

Alexis grunted in agreement. Both Sholtha and Thelen had been too young when they'd boarded the ark to recall very much about what was normal for Khantushakal young and neither of them had yet remembered much about raising their own young after that.

“Has Alithie said much about her memories?” Alexis asked.

“Nope,” said George. He folded his arms. “Which sucks, because I wanna know!”

“George,” said Jill.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Well, she is a bit...taciturn. Even at school. But we do wish she would tell us more.”

Alexis raised an eyebrow. “Be careful what you wish for. Believe me when I tell you that some of what I remember would give you nightmares.”

“Would not,” George protested.

Alexis shrugged. “Have it your way. But when she starts blurting stuff and it makes your skin crawl, I'm going to say I told you so.”

“We'll keep that in mind,” said Jill. “So, what have you been up to?”

“We started training the parasaurs.”

“Oh? How's that going?”

“Well, we just started,” said Hannah, “but it's clear we're going to need some voice commands. You just can't haul on one of those things the way you can on a horse. And we're gonna have to start with the trikes, anks, and gallies too, if we're going to do anything with them, either. To say nothing about that allosaur.”

“Sounds like you two have that in hand.” Jill stepped back to the truck and pulled out a car seat.

“Oo!” said Alexis. “The baby!” She peered into the peacefully sleeping face of the newest addition to the family. “What's his name?”

“Bruce,” said Jill.

“After your father, right?”

Jill nodded.

“It's a good, sturdy name.” She looked up. “Do you think he has a Khantushakal soul?”

Jill shrugged. “Dunno.”

“You mean you haven't...”

“Alexis...Asthriki...we went over that with Sholtha and Rob. I'll tell you right now what I told them. First time he cuts himself on something...and we all know that'll happen sooner or later...y'all can test him. But I am _not_ letting you, or anyone else, poke holes in him. Not unless he needs a blood test.”

“But this _not_ a blood test,” Alexis protested.

“I meant a _medical_ blood test. Not...whatever it is that you do concerning your Blood-memory.”

Alexis raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay. I yield,” she said.

Jill was, after all, co-Alpha with Sholtha, and Alexis was Beta. Which meant she was bound by her own ways to yield to that authority. She still disagreed, but she conceded that Jill had a point. There really wasn't much reason to rush things anyway. Besides, Jill was still more than a little overwhelmed by it all, and for that, Alexis couldn't blame her one bit.

“He's cute,” Alexis said.

Jill smiled. “Thanks,” she said. Her smile faltered a bit. “Have your eyes always had amber flecks in them?”

“Wh...what?” said Alexis.

“Your eyes have amber flecks in them.”

Alexis pressed a couple of fingers to her forehead and groaned.

“What?”

“She's growing feathers,” said Hannah.

“Um...she's what?”

“I'm growing feathers,” Alexis groaned. “And now my eyes are changing color.”

“Is that bad?”

“It's complicating my life too much.”

“Well,” said George, “it can't get...”

“Don't say it.”

“...any worse,” he finished.

“I told you not to say it,” Alexis grumbled. She looked at Jill. “What do you think. Should we make him do punishment burpees for insubordination?”

“What's a burpee?” said George.

Alexis and Jill just laughed.


End file.
